Parthenogenesis
by Tiki Rane Gobell
Summary: Parthenogenesis: Asexual form of reproduction that does not require fertilization. Kyuubi believes he has found his way out. Not your everyday Mpreg. SasuNaru.
1. Question of Sexuality

Parthenogenesis

**Parthenogenesis  
By: Tiki Rane Gobell  
**  
**Summary:** Parthenogenesis: Asexual form of reproduction that does not require fertilization. Kyuubi believes he has found his way out. Mpreg. Narsasu

**Disclaimer: **Listen closely, for I will only say this once. I do not own Naruto or anyone of the related characters or themes. I'm simply a babysitter of Masashi Kishimoto's brain child…and I don't even get paid.

* * *

**Prologue: Back to 9th Grade Biology and Beyond: A brief review of scientific concepts.  
**  
Genetics are the traits passed from one generation to the next, parents to offspring. These genes are stored within our very DNA in the chromosomes. Reproduction combines two halves of genetic code into a single new full code, a new embryo which can mature inside a mother into an offspring. Mammals have always required half of the chromosomes from a female source, an egg, and the other half from male source, a sperm. The gender allele, the code that decides if a child is male or female, for a female is XX. For a male, it is XY. Females always put forth an X egg, while males can either put an Y or an X, meaning they contribute to the gender as such:

Either  
X times X equals XX  
Or  
X times Y equals XY

XY times XX equals XX, XX, XY, XY

But when male chromosomes are joined with male chromosomes, the possible outcomes become different:

XY times XY euals XX, XY, XY, YY

XX is female.  
XY is male.  
YY is inviable. The offspring would not be able to biologically survive.

In such a case as male chromosomes joining with male chromosomes, there is a 25 percent the offspring will be female, a 50 percent chance the offspring will be male, and a 25 percent chance that the offspring will become something that has never been seen by nature. Biologically, the offspring should not be capable of existence. Naturally, a mammal should not be able to reproduce by parthenogenesis. But should nots do not matter to a creature sealed within another and desperate for release. Should not's mean that there is a chance that something new and unprecedented could happen. Should not's have no control over centuries old demons with boundless power and limitless knowledge. To Kyuubi, it's just a challenge. To Kyuubi, it just might be his way out.

* * *

**Time Frame:** Into the future. Naruto is 17. AR. In this timeline, Sasuke has defeated Orochimaru and has returned to Konoha, after being drug back by Naruto. Itachi is still alive, meaning he may or may not contribute to this plot.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Question of Sexuality**

"Naruto….Naruto! NARUTO!"

The fifth hokage's voice shook the room, but the sleeping boy only grunted in his sleep and smacked his lips. The word, "Ramen" was mumbled before the boy settled into silence once more. A vein in Tsunade's forehead was visibly pulsing. _How dare that boy ignore me, the Hokage! _If she wasn't angry at the boy for sleeping during the mission briefing, she might have been impressed with the fact that Naruto was sleeping standing up, for surely that must take some skill. But the impressive skill was lost on the angry blonde Hokage because she hated being disrespected by the little twerp.

Not bothering to go the peaceful route of waking the slumbering shinobi, she punched him in the head sending him crashing into the wall of her office. The office wall now needed to be repaired, but the blonde kitsune was finally awake judging by the disgruntled yell that pierced the room when the wild blonde spikes connected with the hardness of the wall.

"WHAT THE HELL?" yelled the now 17-year-old boy, struggling to get off the ground and save some of his fierce exterior. But his efforts were wasted against Tsunade who merely started yelling at the boy, overpowering all of his other obscenities.

"NARUTO! Sleeping should be done at home, NOT IN THE HOKAGE'S OFFICE! You sure have some nerve, kid, falling asleep right in the middle of a briefing. Did you even sleep last night?" she finally asked, her anger turning to worry for the last question. She studied his face and saw dark rings under his eyes. Even now, he was yawning again and his eyelids drooped.

"Baa-chan, yawn, I've been sleeping at night, but every morning I wake up even more tired. I've been late to four team meetings this week alone because I keep sleeping right through my alarm. Yawn. I don't know what's wrong with me," he whined pitifully, the yawns adding to the effect.

"Have you consulted a doctor?" asked Tsunade, already knowing the answer.

Naruto looked sharply up from where he was rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "HELL NO! They'll just stick me with needles and demand that I stay in bed! Hospitals are for old people, not ninjas! There's no way you're getting me there!"

"What if I ordered you?" asked Tsunade, a bite to her words with her anger returning. "Would you defy direct orders from a hokage?"

Naruto's blue eyes disappeared as he squinted, figuring out what he would do. With sudden inspiration, he waved a finger through the air. "I would become a missing nin! I will never go see a doctor!" he finished stubbornly

Tsunade loved the kid, she really did, but he was sometimes too set in his ways that it was annoying. Heaving a sigh in defeat, Tsunade returned to looking over the papers on her desk. "You're impossible, Naruto, you know that? And that's NOT a compliment!" assured Tsunade as she saw Naruto's face light up at being called impossible, only to slump back into sleepiness as she corrected his misassumption.

"Have you considered it might be the seal? Lift up your shirt." She ordered, getting up from the desk where she had been sitting. This boy was going to worry her to death, or at least make the wrinkles show through her genjutsu.

Fake blushing, Naruto whispered in a joking tone, "Why Baa-chan, you might be just a little old to be asking something like that from me. I mean, I suppose it could work, but the age difference alone would give people something to talk about. I don't think that's the sort of reputation a hokage should be having. Just think of the whispers of 'pedophile.'"

Tsunade's self-control had about had it. It restrained her enough from killing the boy, but nothing more than that. With a monster of a chakra enhanced punched, the blonde kitsune was sent flying through three straight walls. That made it a total of four walls that would have to be repaired soon, and it was all because of a single visit of the blue-eyed, blonde-haired boy.

"JUST LIFT UP THE DAMN SHIRT, NARUTO! I swear you've spent too much time with Jiraiya. You've become a pervert too!"

"I wasn't the one that assigned me to an extended training mission with the perverted sage!" argued Naruto, walking back through the holes he had put in the walls. He noticed a secretary staring at him, probably wondering what exactly was going on. Tsunade wasn't making anything better by shouting for him to take off his clothes. People must be getting the wrong impression. _Hmmm_ Naruto pondered _who am I to correct their misassumptions?_ He felt a twinge of sadistic glee at the hole he was digging for Tsunade.

"You know, Baa-chan, this could be considered sexual harassment," commented Naruto as Tsunade studied his navel. She let the comment slide…for now. Naruto continued, "You never hear me ask you to lift up your shirt. Why should I have to listen to you?"  
Finished checking the seal, she swatted him on the back of the head for his earlier comment. "Your seal looks fine. I suppose it's just you getting lazy, that's all. Go to bed earlier, eat properly, and don't exhaust all of your chakra every day, and maybe it'll get better. Now, on to the mission," she said, sitting down behind her desk again.

She continued giving him the mission briefing hoping that he would stay awake this time through. "I just need you to take these documents to the Kazekage. It's a one-man mission, I know you like those the best. I was going to have you leave immediately, but I think it would be best if you left tomorrow, after a good night's rest. Make sure you do as I told you, Naruto. A ninja, and especially a future hokage, can not afford to fall asleep on a mission and leave himself vulnerable. Is that understood?"

"Yes, baa-chan, perfectly clear. Lots of ramen for supper, good night's rest, head out tomorrow, take papers to Gaara. Got it!"

"QUIT CALLING ME BAA-CHAN! You disrespectful twerp!"

"Of course, old lady," said Naruto with a wide smile, already jumping out of the open window in the hokage office to avoid the missiles being thrown at him by a very young-looking old lady. He allowed himself a quiet laugh for being the only person able to get on the Hokage's nerves and live to tell the tale. He turned around, ready to walk home and fall into bed when he ran right into the hard, muscular chest of a certain Uchiha. Where did he come from? Wondered the future Hokage. I didn't even sense him behind me!

"Watch where you're going, dobe," ordered Sasuke, even as Naruto was bouncing off the raven-haired, onyx-eyed's chest.

"DON'T CALL ME A DOBE, TEME! And I wouldn't have ran into you if you weren't shielding your chakra, idiot!" yelled Naruto, getting defensive. As hateful as the two's relationship seemed, they were really best friends. They just had a … unique way of showing it.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was taken aback. _He noticed that I was shielding my chakra? And I thought it was just luck that he could always find me no matter where I'm hiding from him in the village. He can actually sense me._ But he didn't show that he was impressed when he responded coldly, "The Foolish King of all Idiots is calling me an idiot? How ironic."

Naruto made a noise of frustration, "Argh! What is with all you Uchihas and your superiority complexes?"

"Hmm…and here I was going to offer to allow you to tag along when I went to get dinner," idly said the Uchiha, making it seem as if he was really only talking to himself out loud, which of course, Naruto would have to butt into.

So predictable. "Dinner? As in Ramen? You're going to buy me ramen for dinner?" asked Naruto hopefully.

"DOBE!" said Sasuke, hitting the fox-boy in the back of the head. "I never said anything about paying for your gluttony!"

"But there will be ramen at this dinner?"

"hmmm…" said Sasuke, letting the tension get to Naruto. The blonde boy started hopping up and down whining Saskue's name to get him to answer. Finally, right before Naruto resorted to punching him, Sasuke said, "Yes. I'm going to Ichirakus."

"YES! I'm coming with you!" yelled the blonde, jumping up and down for joy this time, rather than in frustration.

"If you want," said Sasuke, making it seem as if he hadn't offered in the first place and that Naruto was just tagging along because it was one of those annoying things he always did. Naruto, of course, didn't even notice, and began following Sasuke's steps, thinking out loud of all the different flavors of ramen he was going to have when they reached the restaurant. By the time the familiar curtain of the restaurant was in sight, and after he heard of 200 different flavors of Ramen Naruto would like to try before he died, Sasuke was rethinking the whole inviting Naruto to dinner with him thing. Honestly, were there 200 flavors to anything in this world, much less Ramen? Sasuke seriously doubted it.

However, showing annoyance was not something a Uchicha did, it was not accepted, it was not in their blood – wait, this was Naruto, meaning he had every right to show his annoyance. Swatting him on the back of the head like everyone else always did, he hissed, "Shut up, dobe!"

Which Naruto promptly yelled back, "ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE ME SHUT UP?"

Knowing that they were now creating a scene, and that they had attracted the stares of everyone in the vicinity, Sasuke settled for appeasing the blond. "Shut up, dobe, and I'll buy you a bowl of ramen." Bribing with Ramen always wins against Naruto.

"Yeah!" Naruto's complete outlook changed to one of pure happiness, "Ramen! I'm starved! Sasuke, you're the coolest!"

Naruto promptly sat down and began ordering. "I'm only paying for one of yours, baka. Remember that." And they began to eat.

By the time they were walking away from the ramen stand, Sasuke had somehow paid for all of the dobe's eight bowls of ramen. Even he didn't know how that had happened.

"Dobe, you used up all my money on your ramen fest," he stated. Simply stated, not complained. Uchihas do not complain.

"Stop whining, Sasuke. If it really upset you that much, you'd either beat the shit out of me or get a girlfriend so you could take her to the ramen stand. Then, you wouldn't have to invite me so you won't be alone, and I'm sure she'd eat a lot less."

Sasuke stopped in his tracks, causing the blond to stop and look back at him.

"A girlfriend? Why would I want a girlfriend?" questioned the raven-haired 17-year-old

"Well, girls have certain comforts, and certain benefits to them," here Naruto had a mysterious coughing fit in which Sasuke distinctly heard the word 'sex' wheezed. Naruto continued, "And it would be good for your reputation."

"My reputation. Are you insinuating that my reputation needs help?" asked Sasuke, outraged at the very notion. If there was one thing he ever didn't need, it was help with his reputation, especially from Naruto, the social outcast of the village.

Naruto explained, suddenly finding his toes very interesting and nervously playing with the sleeves to his jacket. "Well, I'm not sure what insinuating means…but there are rumors. Rumors that you're gay." He got knocked to the ground by a fist. "Hey! Don't punch me! I'm not the one saying these things. All I'm saying is that getting a girlfriend would make the rumors stop."

"Gay? And what makes people say I'm gay?" he asked, counting backwards from 100 in his head to control his rage.

"Well, you're never seen around any girls, unless it's assigned on a mission, or with Sakura, and we all know Sakura has Lee, so she doesn't count as a girl-option for you. I mean, for example, today, you take me to dinner," seeing Sasuke's death glare , Naruto changed tact, "I mean, I followed you to the Ramen Stand, and then you somehow end up paying for my meal, and now, you're practically walking me home."

"I'm not doing any such thing," retorted Sasuke, "It's merely on my way."

"Yes, but for all outward appearances, you're gay, which, if you are, good for you, if you're not, you might want to get yourself a girlfriend," finished Naruto, continuing his walk home.

"Hmm…But there are no good ones to choose from...no one….girlfriend material," he contemplated it, "But what about you?"

"What about me?" Naruto cut back.

"You have no girlfried," Sasuke pointed out, "Do they call you gay?"

This amused Naruto, who snorted before answering. "I'm the demon child, remember? Parents just want me to leave their daughters alone. Besides, what girl would be interested in me, even if I didn't have Kyuubi? I'm not a pretty boy like you who can steal their hearts away with my good looks."

_That's not true_ thought _Sasuke Naruto's plenty handsome to get a girl. He has a certain rugged quality, and those blond locks are gorgeous. Oh crap, I just thought like a fan girl. Maybe I am gay. I've never really thought about my sexual preference before. It never really mattered. Why does it matter now?_

"Sasuke? Are you okay?" Sasuke mentally shook himself to the present, looking up into Naruto's blue eyes. _Blue eyes. Now that was another good trait to Naruto._ Damn, he had to stop thinking like that.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Naruto. Why do you ask?"

"You kind of zoned out on me there, and then your cheeks got red. Thinking of a certain lady friend, hmm?"

Sasuke ignored the questioned, angry at his cheeks for giving away that he was thinking certain thoughts. He did the only thing he could and picked up his walking pace, hoping to leave the question behind him.

"Oi! Sasuke! Wait up! Where's the fire? I just asked you a simple question. No need to run off."

"Hmm.." was his noncommittal reply.

The rest of the walk to Naruto's apartment was in complete silence, a great feat for someone like Naruto, but then again, they only had 20 more feet to travel before they were standing outside his door. By that time, Sasuke had a question he was itching to ask the blond boy.

"Naruto, are you gay?"

"Does it matter?" Naruto asked, avoiding the question.

Sasuke answered, "Not really."

"Then I don't suppose it really matters if I answer or not," replied Naruto. "Thanks for the ramen. I'll make it up to you sometime, teme. Goodbye." And with that, Sasuke was left facing a closed door, no Naruto in sight, and no answer to his question. Uchiha curiosity was a damned persistent thing. Sasuke had to know the answer to the question, for it did truly matter.

With his back pressed to the other side of the door, Naruto's heart beat loudly in his ears as he listened for Sasuke to leave_. Damn, that was close. I don't need him finding out about that secret. He wouldn't want me as a friend._ Over the years, Naruto had questioned his own sexuality. After he had gotten over his little crush of Sakura, he had realized that his boat didn't seem to float like everybody else's. Naruto couldn't claim to be straight anymore, so he generally just avoided the subject.

The blond cursed whatever made he think of bringing up the subject with Sasuke. Now, Sasuke would be curious, and Naruto wondered how long he could keep his secret from a curious Uchiha.

**O0o.end chapter.o0O**


	2. SleepStudying

Parthenogenesis

**Parthenogenesis**

**By: Tiki Rane Gobell**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, plain and simple.

**Quick review of science #2:** Parthenogenesis is Greek for "Virgin Birth." It is an asexual form of reproduction that does not require fertilization.

**Evaluating YY Chromosomes:**

The salmon in the Columbia River have a rare mutation due to hormonal triggers in the pesticide/fertilizer in the ecosystem that allows XY chromosome pairs to be female. Naturally, if a XY female mates with a YY male, some of the offspring can, and have been, YY.

Though this is possible for the mutated salmon species, it has never been seen in humans. Scientists, such as Richard E. Barrans Jr., Ph.D., say that it is not possible. The human Y chromosome simply does not contain enough genetic information to support life. The Y chromosome's main value is to determine the gender of the individual, while the X chromosome defines life-giving processes such as genes for the ability to see color and to make blood clotting abilities.

Without the genetic information inscribed within the X chromosome, a human would not be able to survive…unless affected by some outside force, a force such as that of the Kyuubi. If the nine-tailed fox could find a way to mutate his own pattern of life-giving genetic code into that of the YY offspring, it would be able to survive. It may not be fully human, but it _would_ be able to survive. It has a chance to work, and one chance is all Kyuubi needs.

**Chapter 2: Sleep-Studying**

Tsunade was glaring out the window after the quickly disappearing head of blond hair otherwise known as Naruto. Everytime she tried to show even a little bit of concern for the boy, he always made her regret it by being incredibly stubborn. She didn't even know why she bothered. _Well, that's not true. He reminds you of your little brother. You couldn't stay mad at someone with eyes of determination like that._

The fifith hokage must've spaced out, for when she refocused on the room, she met the image of a very panicked Shizune, Tonton at her heels.

"Tsunade-sama! You don't have time to waste daydreaming! The papers! The forms! You are so behind! Get back to your work, Tsunade-sama, or the village will suffer."

Tsunade waved the black-haired woman off, "Yeah, yeah. I know. I was just getting started." She yawned and started looking through the stack of papers overflowing her desk- it would be a late night in the office for her if she even hoped on catching up on all her work.

Shizune's heels clicked on the ground as she walked out of the hokage's office and down the hallway. She had to go find some sake to bribe Tsunade into doing her work- no doubt the attendent would need it soon, very soon by Tsunade's already distracted appearance. She already knew that Tsunade would most likely have dozed off over the papers by the time she got back.

The fifth grabbed the top paper of the stack nearest to her and began reading its contents. By the third line, she had figured out that she was reading a paper from the "Problems in Konoha" stack. Good. Shizune would probably want those taken care of first, as the village was the most important thing to protect to the hokage.

The report she was reading was very bland. It was most likely written by a Jounin bored with night duty and trying to get her back for assigning it to him by boring her to death in his descriptions. Finally, she pulled the useful information out of the report: There had apparently been a break-in at the Konoha Library. _Odd, why would someone want to steal something that is open to the public use anyway?_ Three scrolls and five books were reported missing the next day by the librarians. The only hint of the criminal was the barest glimpse of blond hair caught on the library's security cameras.

_Blond hair. That doesn't really narrow it down any. There are lots of blond ninja in the village, and the thief might not even be a Kohoha nin._ But something just wasn't sitting well with Tsunade. Her thoughts kept going to a certain annoying blond who had just been in her office complaining about being tired. _But Naruto wouldn't steal, _she told herself. But her suspicions wouldn't just go away. There was only one option she could think of.

O0o.o0O

The Last Uchiha of Konoha was left with a million questions in his head from his conversation with Naruto. Who knew the kitsune-plagued boy would make a Uchiha question his sexuality? It was a difficult question that he couldn't quite answer right away, so Sasuke settled for thinking about his future. He had two goals: One, kill Itachi. Two, revive the clan. _There_ was his answer. He couldn't very well revive his clan without a female, right? So it was obvious to him that his sexuality didn't matter to him, because he would still need a woman to help revive his clan. With that decided, Sasuke allowed himself to gaze around the busy street he was standing in. His eyes met a wide-variety of females. He noticed how that when he locked gazes with the surrounding women, it didn't matter what age they were or if they were married or not, they still blushed at his attention. Sasuke had to bless his Uchiha genes- he could get any girl he wanted.

He briefly imagined starting a family with one of these girls. The images made him sick to his stomach. He nearly lost it when his gaze fell upon an elderly woman of about 70. There was no way that would help anything! He decided he had to get those thoughts out of his head- and quickly, before he actually began throwing up from the disturbing mental pictures.

"Sasuke-kun!" came the familiar voice of his pink-haired teammate, destroying his current thought process. _Good!_

Sasuke shifted his gaze to her, all those images thankfully gone. Even when their eyes locked, she didn't blush or look away like the other woman in the village. She had, apparently, got over him completely. It was kind of a relief to him- he would never be able to see the girl as more than a friend. And he certainly didn't want to.

"Sasuke-kun, are you all right? You look a little sick." Sakura asked, peering at him with worried green eyes.

"I'm fine," he said, collecting himself and getting rid of the last of those thoughts that plagued his mind.

"If you're sure…" said Sakura, knowing the Uchiha didn't like prying. "Anyway, Tsunade-sama asks to see you immediately. She says she has a mission for you."

Now, if Sasuke was anything other than an Uchiha, he would've been throwing a fit right now. He would have pointed off that he had already completed his mission for the day and that, by basic principle of courtesy, the Hokage had no right to ask him to do another one that day. But, as the facts stood as such: Sasuke _was_ an Uchiha. He couldn't say anything, because Uchiha's _never _complain! Thusly, he gave a silent nod before disappearing off to go see the hokage.

O0o.o0O

"Hokage-sama, you asked to see me?" Sasuke asked, walking in through the office door. Tsunade had to briefly wonder why all ninja felt the need to either always jump in through the window or walk in without knocking. The younger generation had no manners at all.

"Yes, Uchiha Sasuke. It's a very special mission. You will need the best of your trailing tactics because it is imperative that the person you will be following not know that you are there. Understood?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Good. Recently there have been a number of break-ins at the Kohoha Library and several scrolls and books have gone missing. I have reason to believe that the person I'm assigning you to follow has something to do with this. You are to follow him and keep track of everything he does throughout this night. Report back to me by dawn of tomorrow. Is that understood?"

"Hokage-sama, who is it that I am to follow?" asked Sasuke, wondering why Tsunade didn't just tell him that from the start.

"Uzumaki Naruto," she answered. _Oh, that's why. _Sasuke thought, _I'd never believe her._

Sasuke couldn't help but allow himself to send her a incredulous look. This must all be a joke. "Hokage-sama, in all due seriousness, I highly doubt Naruto would be stealing books from a library- he doesn't read, and he's too much of a good guy to steal."

"True, but there is something going on. I just want to make sure that he isn't a suspect. Remember Sasuke: It could very well be someone controlling Naruto. Just do your mission and report back to me by dawn."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," he said dryly. If he hadn't still been in so much trouble for running away from Konoha, he might've stayed and argued Naruto's innocence. There were just some things Naruto would never be capable of- concentrating on a book was one of them. It was a ridiculous notion to even consider, but she was the Hokage and it was Sasuke's job to follow her orders, so he gave her the slightest of a bow before once again disappearing.

He reappeared outside Naruto's apartment's window. He saw Naruto come out of the bathroom, a goofy animal hat on his head and a toothbrush in his mouth. Sasuke was reminded of his conversation with Naruto earlier in which Naruto listed all the reasons people were starting to say that Sasuke was a homosexual. Sasuke concluded that this mission fit on that list as well. He felt like a stalker outside Naruto's window. "How ridiculous," he told himself, "I don't like him that way. This is just a mission." But even so, Sasuke fell deeper into the shadows of the night to ensure that he wouldn't be seen.

The first couple of hours of his watch passed uneventfully. Naruto climbed into the bed, turned off the light, and went to bed, just like every other average person. After tossing and turning for a few minutes, the blond finally settled down and drifted off to sleep. His calm breathing could be seen by the moonlight streaming in through the window. Watching the repitive movement almost put Sasuke to sleep.

By the second hour of watching the same slumbering blond, Sasuke was sure the night was wasted, but as soon as his eyelids began to close, he sensed movement in Naruto's apartment. His eyes snapped open. Naruto was getting out of bed. For a second, Sasuke was led to believe that the boy was getting up to use the bathroom, but then he noticed his breathing was still the same and that the blonde's eyes were still shut in sleep. "Could Naruto be sleep-walking?" Sasuke wondered.

Naruto's eyes stayed shut even when he opened his apartment door and walked down a flight of steps to the ground. The blond then started off down the street. Sasuke was perturbed- it was rather weird and spooky to see Naruto walking in his sleep. He followed the boy, being sure to stay hidden even if his prey was asleep.

Sasuke soon found himself outside of the Konoha Library, and that was when Naruto, even in his sleep state, switched into sneak-mode. He jumped up a story of the building, landing on a window pane, and used his chakra to unfasten the window. The boy cautiously climbed in through the window and landed quietly inside the building. Sasuke followed, being even more cautious- he didn't want to set off any alarms. What he did want was to see what Naruto was up to. By the time Sasuke caught up with Naruto again, the blond boy already had two new books in his hands and was heading back to the window. Sasuke had to jump behind a bookcase to keep himself from being seen. If Itachi could see him now, the man would surely be laughing at him- the last Uchiha hiding behind a shelf of cooking books to avoid a sleep walker! How embarrassing.

Embarrassing or not, the Uchiha had to get over it because the prey he was so diligently stalking was getting away from him. Upon exiting the library, Sasuke had to search around for the kitsune boy. He finally found him on the rooftops- walking on the very edges. Even in his sleep, Naruto turned out to be an idiot needlessly putting himself in danger. Sasuke followed him back to the boy's apartment where Naruto promptly sat down in the floor upon entering and opening one of the books.

_How odd _thought Sasuke. _How is he reading with his eyes closed? It's impossible. _Sasuke activated his Sharingon and took a closer look. Now, he could see how Naruto was using his chakra. Normally, the boy's chakra was blue, but now, while most of his body was showing the blue chakra, a stream of red could be seen coming from the boy's naval. It seemed to be hovering over the book as if it were absorbing the information written. _Could it be the Kyuubi? Has Naruto lost control of the demon fox?_

Sasuke decided to continue his observation- the Kyuubi did not seem to be trying to escape, merely expand its boundaries. However, if the Kyuubi was plotting some method of escaping, it could mean bad things for Konoha in the future. This needed to be reported to the Hokage.

Sasuke continued watching his blond friend "sleep-study," as that was what it appeared to be. Leave it to his dobe to be a...well dobe- most people simply snored, some tossed and turned in their sleep, and others sleep-walked, but not Naruto. Sasuke guessed that Naruto never wanted to be normal, not even when it came to sleeping, so he had to sleep-study instead of doing what everyone else did.

Whatever the reason for this practically supernatural event, it continued until the early morning hours, about an hour till dawn. Naruto had flipped through nearly all of his books when he suddenly shut the book and stood up. Sasuke could tell by the boy's still shut eyes that he was still asleep. Naruto picked up all the books and put them into a wooden box in his closet that was hidden under a bunch of his orange jumpsuits. The kitsune boy then threw a pile of the terribly bright orange clothes back over the box. After it was hidden from sight, Naruto climbed back into bed and fell back into a normal, shiftless sleep.

Sasuke waited thirty minutes, but the blond boy didn't move again, so he headed to the Hokage's office to make his report as he was ordered to do. He knocked on the office door for once, at least allowing Tsunade the chance to act like she wasn't sleeping at her desk. When her voice finally called him to enter, his suspicions proved true- she had ink smeared across a red mark on her check and the sharp Uchiha eyes spotted drool marks across the paper on her desk. _What an example of dedication, _he smirk to himself.

"Uchiha, report," she ordered taking the focus of the ink on her face.

"It is as you feared- it is Naruto, but…" said the Uchiha, unsure as to how to continue about the Kyuubi.

"But?" prompted Tsunade, sitting down heavily behind her desk. She didn't need to be watching Naruto day and night -- there were already too many things to do in a day.

The Uchiha continued in a dull, just-stating the facts voice, his mission-reporting voice, "I think there may be Kyuubi influence." Tsunade looked up sharply at this, so the Uchiha explained better. "Naruto went to bed at approximately 9:00 pm. At approximately 11:00 pm, I registered movement in his room. Naruto stirred and left his house. He appeared to be sleep walking. His walk led him to the library where he retrieved a few books and then he brought them back home. In his sleep, he appeared to be reading them, however, with Sharingan, I noticed red chakra leaking from his naval and surrounding the books. I think the Kyuubi might have been somehow absorbing the information there."

Tsunade sighed heavily, bracing her head in her hands. "Did Naruto do anything else?"

Sasuke shook his head, "About an hour to dawn, Kyuubi put the books in a wooden chest in Naruto's closet. Then, Naruto went back to his bed and continued to sleep."

"Hmmm… I suppose this explains why the boy said he's always tired. I wonder what he was reading. Did you retrieve the books?"

"I did not."

"Do so," she said, reaching for a jug of sake.

"Hokage-sama, Naruto's mission to Sand?" he reminded her.

"Ah, yes. I suppose he shouldn't go then. He might put them in danger," she sighed tiredly.

"I suggest you allow him to go."

"Excuse me, Uchiha? I am the Hokage, not you."

"Tsunade-sama, we both know Naruto, he's an idiot, but a righteous idiot. If you prevent him from going on the mission, he'll get curious. Then, he'll find out about the Kyuubi leaking and, being the baka he is, he'll try to shoulder the burden on his own and he'll probably stop sleeping to try to save us all."

"He is a stubborn brat," agreed Tsunade. "We don't want another insomniac demon-host. What do you propose?"

Sasuke said, "Send someone to watch over him. Just say you believe there might be an increased risk to the mission. Don't tell him what exactly."

"Who should I send?" Tsunade pondered aloud. "Hyuuga Neji, perhaps? He got back from his last mission two days ago, and he greatly respects Naruto. He would be a good choice to keep the boy safe."

Tsunade began pulling forms from her desk to assign the new mission to Neji. Sasuke was ready to go home and go to sleep, but he suddenly had a mental image of the Hyuuga watching over Naruto, just as he himself had done last night. Some unknown beast roared within the raven-haired boy. It must have something to do with the "great respect" Neji supposedly held for Naruto. _What if it was something more? _That thought kept running through his head for some unknown reason. Then he told himself, _Naruto's not gay. And neither am I. Why am I thinking like this? _But that deeper, more hidden side of him, the side that always makes one doubt oneself, said, _He never answered the question when you asked if he was gay. And you've never been with a girl. Sooo…_ Sasuke cut those thoughts off right there. He decided he would remain a firm asexual until he needed to repopulate the Uchiha clan. It was as simple as that. But still, the thought of Neji watching over the dobe was disturbing him. There was only one choice:

"I'll go."

Tsunade looked up from the form. "What?" she asked him.

"I'll go with Naruto to Sand," Sasuke said, his voice coolly even as to not let any form of emotion slip.

Tsunade started laughing. "I don't think that's a good idea. You've been up for 24 hours straight at least." It was actually more like 36, but Sasuke wasn't going to correct her.

"I've endured much longer. I believe I'm the best judge to know what I can and can't handle," he replied coldly.

The Hokage looked him in the eyes, seeing his determination to go. It reminded her of a boy she lost so long ago, her little brother. She heaved another sigh into the early morning quiet.

"Fine, Uchiha. But you better not let any harm befall Naruto or yourself." She went back to the mission forms she was filling out, marking out Neji's name and putting Sasuke's instead. She mumbled something about having an overbearing amount of stubborn guys under her jurisdiction. "Get out of my office then, but make sure you retrieve me those books before you leave!"

O0o.end chapter.o0O


	3. On the Road to Sand

Parthenogenesis

**Parthenogenesis**

**By: Tiki Rane Gobell**

**O0o.o0O**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto…**_**yet…da duh dum!**_

O0o.o0O

**A Demon's Soliloquy: Kyuubi's POV**

_Look what I have become: a parasite, clinging to the slim thread of life with this seal of the Yondaime's. I have been thrown into a cage I cannot excape from, into a darkness I cannot rise above. It is a shame, a disgrace, an annoyance I will find my way out of. I am Kyuubi, greatest of the tailed-beasts._

_I have been searching for a way out of this hell-hole of a cage, and I believe I have found a way. The boy that holds my seal is annoying good at resisting my power and my influence…while he is awake. Yet, as his humanity drives him to seek unconscousness at night- a rather pathetic human weakness- his mind opens up to me. It is not much, but it is a crack. I cannot hope to break out through it, but I can extend myself. While the boy is asleep, I can influence his body to do as I wish, and what I wish is to find a way out of this hell._

_I found the answer in the mass of books in a library- a human library! They know not that their precious information will assist their greatest demon enemy to escape. They are prefectly content to go about their puny, insignficant existences completely unaware that each day my desire to escape and destroy them, to bath myself in their blood, to make myself great once again grows even greater._

_My solution was simple, though complex. Simple to think of, complex to carry out. I knew I would need a new body- my old one had long since rotted away after the fires of the villagers burnt it. I knew that I would not be able to find a body like my old one, but I was willing to sacrafice a little of my previous power in order to have a body that I can call my own. I found a way. I needed a baby's body, one not burdened with a soul unto which I would just be sealed again. I needed an unhabited body, dead from the very start, one that I could mold into what I needed._

_I raided the library, taking scrolls and books about human DNA and reproduction. It was in one of these scrolls that I found a jutsu for artificial insimenation. A pointless jutsu for those of the human race, who seem to desire the sexual attentions of others so greatly. Yet I found the answer I had been searching for, the one that would allow me to create a new body for my sealed soul…and I would create that body within my old one, the one of the blond boy._

_The plan was easy to think about, but more complex when one focuses on each element that must occur. I had my jutsu and a way to create a human body, but how to create a soulless body? Human genetics. The XX gene set would make the baby female and she would have a soul. The XY gene set would make the baby male and give him a soul. But a YY combination would be new. It became apparent that I would have to cross male DNA with male DNA, and to avoid discovery, I would have to use the blond brat's DNA which is always readily on hand. The YY child wouldn't be able to live- not enough genetic information. All that would be left would be a lifeless, soulless, ungrowing embryo, until my influence shapes it into a more suitable body- that of a half-demon, a hanyou. The great Kyuubi, a hanyou? Shameful, but no more than that of this Kyuubi being sealed into a human kitling._

_The solution seemed flawless, until I realized how much chakra and concentration it would take on my part to bring this plan to the end. More research taught me that my carrier woud be in danger as well when the pregnancy symptoms strike. I am not foolish enough to say that both my carrier and myself are not without enemies and I am not arrogant enough to believe that we would be able to defeat them in such a state. We would need a protector, someone who would never leave our side, someone who believed they owed us something. Several of the so-named "precious people" of my carrier came to mind: particularly the Hyuuga boy with white eyes and the carrier of the Shukaku, Gaara. _

_However, I do not feel as if they care deep enough about my carrier to protect him with all of their ability, for they do not have the ability to turn their emotions into power. It became clear, then, that my carrier would need someone he was deeply connected to emotionally to protect him. The pink-haired girl was my first guess, but, as I explored my carrier's emotions more clearly, I discovered that only deep ties of sibling-like affection connected them. I was looking for something more like the emotion humans call "love" of the romantic kind. This emotion only appeared to be held by my carrier for the most unlikely person, a person that had tried to kill him before, Uchiha Sasuke. _

_He would be the perfect tool, if only he felt the same way. However, my carrier is too noble to make the guy want him, so that would become my job as well. Again I raided the library to see how human emotions worked-through hormones mostly. I knew I could affect my carrier's hormones, making him happy or sad, enthralled or depressed, bold or shy, sexually aroused or not. I only needed the chance to get the Uchiha and my carrier alone, or enough so that the beginings of jealous protection became apparent. That chance came when my carrier was assigned a mission to Sand…a mission Uchiha tagged along with._

**Chapter 3: On the Road to Sand**

Squirrels scampered up their trees, birds took flight, and rabbits fled off through the underbrush, all startled at the sound of a very loud, whiney voice.

"Sasuke! I don't need you! I can complete this simple mission alone! Jeez, you're wasting your time," said the blond haired boy, stubbornly refusing to even look at the raven haired comrade.

"Don't make it sound like I wanted to come along with you, dobe. I was ordered by the Hokage to accompany you." Not true, but Sasuke wasn't about to let Naruto know that.

"Sheesh, I don't know why Baa-chan sent a weak teme like you to help me. Besides, it's just a simple scroll delivery. I don't see what could go wrong." Naruto was too busy complaining to watch where he was going, resulting in him tripping over a rather large rock in the middle of the road and falling flat on his face.

"Perhaps she feared that you would kill yourself with your sheer clumsiness, dobe," answered Sasuke in a cool voice.

Naruto quickly jumped up from where he had been sprawled on the ground. "TEME!" Naruto shouted while pointing an anger finger at the Uchiha, "She should've feared more for your life. Make fun of me again and we'll settle this here and now!"

"It would be pointless," said Sasuke, ignoring the blond and walking right past him. "We both know you would lose."

"SAY THAT TO MY FACE, TEME!" yelled Naruto. Sasuke ignored him, choosing to stay quiet and keep walking.

Naruto continued to yell at him. "DON'T IGNORE ME BASTARD! We both know I'm not the same dobe that used to get in your way! WE'RE EQUALS NOW!"

Sasuke still silently continued on his way. He had been up for nearly two days straight now, and he was beyond tired- he didn't feel like bothering with the blond's loud attitude right then. But the blond would not allow himself to be overlooked.

"I said, 'DON'T IGNORE ME!'" the kitsune boy snarled, rushing at Sasuke's back with full intention to punch the raven-haired boy until he paid attention.

But Sasuke was an Uchiha, and they are not so easily surprised. At the last second, Sasuke moved out of the way of the punch, catching Naruto's wrist with his hand and twisting the blond's arm, forcing him to the ground. Yet, Naruto wasn't so easily defeated. He tried to twist around and hit Sasuke with his unrestrained hand. In defense, Sasuke grabbed that hand too, and to ensure the blond boy wouldn't try anything more, the Uchiha pinned Naruto's hands above the blond's head and straddled the boy's waist to hold him down.

"Don't mess with me today, Naruto. I'm not in the mood to deal with you," he snarled into the kitsune boy's face.

Naruto's face lost its expression of anger to be replaced with one of surprise. Before he could even register the movement, Sasuke had moved off him and was on his way to Sand once more.

If Sasuke hadn't been on the edge enough already, that simple contact with the blond boy made him even worse. Sasuke couldn't help but reprimand himself. _Great, Sasuke. You just practically made moves on someone you suspect is gay. Just great._ It was made even greater by the fact that there was now an unfamiliar and uncomfortable pressure in his pants. Sasuke tried to ignore it and the things it represented by repeating a mantra to himself as he walked along: _I am asexual. I am asexual. I am asexual._

Naruto recovered from his shock and pulled himself from the ground. He ran to catch up with the Uchiha.

"Jeez, Sasuke. What's got your panties in a bundle?" he remarked short-temperedly, not enjoying the fact that he had just gotten beaten by the Uchiha, even if it wasn't an all out spar.

Sasuke made a noise in the back of his throat that sounded like an angry growl. The blond boy acted too innocent for his own good. _You! _iswhat his subconscious screamed, but he remained his silent, stoic self. This was going to be a long mission, and Sasuke was already regretting volunteering for it.

O0o.o0O

Tsunade's eyebrow twitched as she opened the wooden box the Uchiha had dropped off before he left on his mission. There were books and scrolls in the box like the boy had told her, but there were also a pair of bright orange boxers. Not doubt the Uchiha's form of a joke, she thought. Throwing those into her waste basket, she began pulling out the books. They were indeed the missing books from the library. She would have to read through all of them to find a relation between them to figure out what the Kyuubi was planning. However, she took another look at the smallest book- about an inch-and-a-half thick. Blowing out a deep breathe, she threw all the books back into wooden box. This was going to be a long task. In order to complete it, she would need something…or rather, someone:

"SHIZUNE!"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama," answered Shizune at the door.

Tsunade smiled at her. It was a very evil smile, so evil, that Shizune took a step back.

"Tsunade-sama?" she asked uncertainly.

"Shizune, I have a special mission for you," the hokage said placing the box of books in Shizune's hands and pushing her slightly, leading her out the door. "Read the books inside this box, summarize each, and then write a report on the similarities between them all."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama," said Shizune, right before the office door slammed closed. Suspicious, she opened the box to find the numerous, thick books. "TSUNADE-SAMA!" she yelled in anger, but Tsunade had already escaped through her office window and was on the way to a place where she could sit down with some good sake.

O0o.end of chapter.o0O


	4. Jealousy and Denial

**Chapter 4: Jealousy and Denial**

Sand. Lots and lots of little bitty pieces of course, grainy, annoying sand getting into everything. That pretty much described the Village Hidden in the Sand. Two steps past the village gates and the short-tempered, sleep-deprived Sasuke Uchiha had already had enough sand to last him more than one life time.

Sasuke noticed that Naruto didn't seem to mind the sand as much. His eyes were shut in that wide, goofy smile of his as he walked down the streets of Suna as if he owned the place. The blond boy called out hellos to several different people as they made their way down the cobbled road. Sasuke soon realized that all the people Naruto greeted had only one thing in common: they owned Ramen stands. Typical Naruto.

"Dobe, do you have the ramen restaurants memorized everywhere?" asked Sasuke, finally breaking the long silence that had fallen between the two since their short fight earlier in their journey.

If possible, Naruto's smile broadened even more. He pointed his finger up as if were reciting some important rule. "A good shinobi must always know where he can recuperate his stamina after a long mission."

"Ramen is bad for you," said Sasuke shortly, already having a premonition that this "conversation" would only end in blows.

Almost as if to prove his suspicions true, he was practically tackled by the blond boy who was trying to put his hand over the Uchiha's mouth. "Shhh! Don't speak such blasphemy! The Ramen Gods might hear you and then destroy all of the ramen in the world!"

Sasuke shrugged off the blond boy, putting more distance between them before responding, "If that would be the only consequence, maybe I'll yell it down the streets."

"NO YOU WON'T!" yelled Naruto, actually tackling Sasuke this time. The two wrestled in the sand covered floor like two little kids fresh out of the academy. Naruto was trying to hold his hand over Sasuke's mouth while Sasuke tried to free himself from Naruto's grasp so that he could put the official no-un-asexual-thoughts distance between himself and the kitsune boy.

They paused in their struggles when an emotionless voice cut through the air. "Uzumaki Naruto. Uchiha Sasuke."

That was all it took for the two to separate as they stood before the Kazekage, Gaara.

Naruto scratched the back of his head looking sheepish. "Ah, Gaara, we were just…aha…" Fighting over Ramen Gods would sound lame, so Naruto was wise enough to just trail off into silence…for once.

Gaara just looked the two boys over Well, boys didn't quite suit them. They were practically young men now. The green eyes landed on Sasuke and seemed to size him up before turning a fraction colder. Sasuke wondered at this, but didn't have the chance to speculate further as the Kazekage engaged Naruto in conversation.

Sasuke felt like he was an intruder upon two good friends. There was an air of familiarity that not even he, the dobe's best friend, had with Naruto. Something inside Sasuke clinched. He was tempted to call it jealousy, but then he remembered that Uchihas do not feel jealousy…well…not over guys talking to other guys at least.

Their brief conversation concluded with Gaara saying, "Then back to village business. I assume you have a scroll for me from the Hokage?" Naruto nodded his head happily. "Follow me, then."

Naruto began to follow after Gaara but stopped when he noticed Sasuke was not moving. He jumped backwards, landing at the raven-haired youth's side. "Something wrong, teme?"

"Dobe, why are you being so friendly with the kazekage?" asked Sasuke, his eyes narrowed.

Naruto seemed taken aback. That certainly wasn't a question he would expect from the rooster-headed boy. "Well, we are friends, and I'm allowed to be friendly with my friend, aren't I?"

Sasuke glared at him, and Naruto suddenly had the urge to gulp. "Have you forgotten he tried to kill all of Konoha?"

Naruto simply stared at the Uchiha in silence. His mouth seemed to try to form several words, his expression angry, but no sound came out. Finally, Naruto sighed and simply said, "So did you," before jumping off to walk beside the distant kazekage, effectively ending the conversation.

With three words, Sasuke was left with more to think about than a whole speech made by the hokage could have given him.

O0o.o0O

The official meeting with the Kazekage in his office was quite stressful. Nothing much was said. Gaara just sat behind his desk, Naruto pulled out the scroll they were to deliver him, and the kazekage read it silently while the two leaf nins waited for the response. Sasuke kept shooting glances at Naruto trying to decipher what the blond had been referring to earlier, while Naruto would return those glances as soon as Sasuke looked away. The two kept missing each other's glances, however, the third party in the room did not. Gaara was secretly watching the pair interact with curiosity as he pretended to be engrossed in the scroll the Hokage sent him. It really didn't need much attention as it was just an invitation to a surprise birthday party for Naruto. That hokage sure had some nerve sending the letter by the very person it was about. He importantly pulled out a new piece of paper and began to pretend to write a lengthy response to the Hokage's scroll. In reality, all he wrote was, "I will attend." However, he sealed up the response like any other important document and handed it back to the blond kitsune boy. "Be sure that gets back safely," he told Naruto.

"You are both free to use the hotel set aside for diplomatic visitors. Naruto will show you the way. Dismissed." The two turned to leave but Gaara had not finished speaking yet. "Actually, Uchiha, if you will stay. There is something I need to speak with you about privately."

Naruto sent Sasuke and Gaara a quizzical look before disappearing outside the office.

Gaara shuffled some papers around on his desk in silence until he heard the Uchiha clear his throat intentionally.

"Uchiha."

"Kazekage."

Gaara left a few moments of silence to sharpen the tension in the room. _As if he needed to do that, _thought the Uchiha.

Gaara finally asked, "What is your connection to Naruto Uzumaki?"

Suddenly, Sasuke had the distinct impression that he was being cornered, forced into a tight spot, shoved between a rock and a hard place, and…yeah…it was tense. He took the easy way out: "Naruto is my comrade. We were traveling on a mission together to ensure that the scroll got to its proper place, which it did. What more do you need to know?"

"It took two of Leaf's finest to bring a scroll to Suna?"

Sasuke answered tersely, "It must have been a valuable scroll."

Gaara shook his head. "You are hiding something from me Uchiha. Read the scroll for yourself and tell me the true reason you are traveling with Naruto." The kazekage threw the scroll to Sasuke who caught it quickly.

He wasted no time unfurling it and his black eyes quickly zipped through the scroll.

He said, "This is…an invitation."

"To Naruto's surprise birthday party," finished the kazekage. "Important, yes, but hardly worth two outstanding ninja messengers. Is there something I should be aware of? Why are you protecting Naruto on this mission? Is there something threatening him?"

Sasuke put his emotionless mask on and answered, "There is nothing that concerns the Sand."

"That is not what I asked, Uchiha. I asked if there was something I should be aware of? A threat? An enemy? Something I could help with?"

"The Leaf has everything under control. No need for you to get involved," Sasuke gritted through his clenched teeth.

Gaara surveyed him through those hypnotic green eyes. "Very well," he said after a while. "I see I will get no answers from you. However, I will ask you once more, 'What is you connection with Naruto Uzumaki?' A comrade? A friend? Something more?"

Sasuke began making his way to the door. Halfway there, he paused as Gaara spoke again. "A genius they call you. Denial does not suit you, Uchiha."

_Great, _thought Sasuke, _How do I respond to that? If I say I'm not in denial, then I'm in denial about something. I see no way I could win._

He took an alternate route. "There is nothing for me to be in denial about," he said walking the rest of the way to the door, almost ready to open it.

Gaara nodded his head, a motion Sasuke noticed, even with his back turned to the man. "Good," Gaara said, "I wanted to ask Naruto to dinner tonight and I wanted to make sure there were no other pursuers." The door handle Sasuke had in his hand about to open gave a noticeable rattle as Sasuke's body tensed at the announcement.

Gaara seemed happy, "Hmmm…so I see perhaps the Uchiha wasn't honest. I can tell by your tenseness that maybe there is a little denial after all. I will not pursue Naruto this visit, but the next time I see him, I promise that will make my intentions known to him unless he is taken by another. I suggest you sort out your emotions by then."

Sasuke, "Tched" before opening the door and walking out of the building. Once again the mantra "I am asexual" was going through the Uchiha's head. He could not afford to be gay- he had a clan to repopulate.

He found Naruto outside the building. "Hey, teme! I've been waiting for you! What took you so long?"

Sasuke couldn't quite meet the blond's eyes "Nothing, just talking about a new jutsu," he lied.

Naruto seemed to consider it for a while. Finally he said, "That's good. Now, let's go get some ramen! I'm starved!"

He raced through the streets to the nearest stand. Sasuke followed at a slower pace. He had a lot to think about: first there was Naruto's comment from earlier, and now the Kazekage's sudden interest in Naruto. Both things were pushed out of his mind when he sat down beside the dobe at the ramen bar. A bowl of ramen was placed under his nose and he had to stifle a groan. _I hate ramen!_

O0o.end chapter.o0O


	5. Night Wanderings

Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"I did not."

"Come again," said the blond boy into the pillow, nearly asleep in the bed in the double room he shared with Sasuke. Naruto rolled over on his side to study the Uchiha laying in the other bed in the room.

Sasuke laid on his back staring holes into the ceiling in thought. He sighed, finally tearing his gaze away from the white hotel ceiling to look into those bright blue eyes. He continued on with his thoughts aloud, "Earlier you said that I tried to kill all of Konoha."

_**Flashback**_

"_Dobe, why are you being so friendly with the kazekage?" asked Sasuke, his eyes narrowed._

_Naruto seemed taken aback. That certainly wasn't a question he would expect from the rooster-headed boy. "Well, we are friends, and I'm allowed to be friendly with my friend, aren't I?"_

_Sasuke glared at him, and Naruto suddenly had the urge to gulp. "Have you forgotten he tried to kill all of Konoha?"_

_Naruto simply stared at the Uchiha in silence. His mouth seemed to try to form several words, his expression angry, but no sound came out. Finally, Naruto sighed and simply said, "So did you," before jumping off to walk beside the distant kazekage, effectively ending the conversation._

_**End Flashback**_

Sasuke said, "I didn't though. The only person I tried to kill was…well…" Sasuke had trouble finishing his own sentence. It brought back a dark history that he was trying to forget. He regretted his actions he took against his best friend back then. On that day, Sasuke vowed to gain power his own way, not to gain it the way his brother did so that he wouldn't have to try to kill Naruto again.

Naruto finished Sasuke's hanging sentence, now finding the ceiling a nice object to stare at too, "me. I know Sasuke, I remember." The blond boy absently put a hand up to his chest as if he was feeling a hole made by a chidori there, but his facial expression stayed impassive.

Suddenly Sasuke was feeling very guilty. He remembered all too well too. He remembered the feel of his hand through his best friend's chest.

Naruto continued, "You left us for Orochimaru, to become his next body. What did you think he was going to do with your body? Take it on a nice long vacation in hopes of getting it a tan?" Naruto suddenly felt the burning heat of a death glare on him. He looked over at the glowering Uchiha with his biggest smile. "Joking! Just joking." His face went suddenly serious. "But Orochimaru wasn't, Sasuke. He was going to use your body to destroy Konoha. By leaving us, you put us in danger."

Sasuke considered this. It was reasonably logical, surprisingly so for the dobe. "I wouldn't have let it happen."

This made Naruto laugh. The blond boy said, "And you think you could stop Orochimaru once he was in your body? And they call me the idiot?"

"I had everything under control. I was going to take all the power Orochimaru gave me and then destroy him with it. Then I would find my brother and kill him," responded the Uchiha. He had been contemplating what he would have done for a long time, but then, before he could carry out his plans, a young blond boy and his pervy sensei killed Orochimaru before him, dragging the Uchiha back to Konoha with both his arms and legs broken, just as Naruto had promised him. Sasuke should be angry at Naruto, but the kitsune boy was just doing what best friends do, or so he said.

It was with Orochimaru that Sasuke finally discovered what Naruto was- a demon vessel. He carried the legendary Nine-tailed fox, sealed into him by the Fourth Hokage. It explained everything about the boy: why he was always alone as a child, why the adults shot him such hateful looks, why he felt the overbearing need to get someone to recognize him, why he had such monstrous red chakra, and it even explained why Naruto had whisker marks on his cheeks.

What it didn't explain was how Naruto had so easily forgiven Sasuke once he returned. It had just been like old times. They greeted each other as if nothing had ever happened. "Teme." "Dobe." And then they went about their mission of the day. They had never talked about it. Sasuke had never given a formal apology, not that Naruto would've cared. But it all was coming out now.

"Hphf," sulked Naruto, turning over on his side to

"Just go to sleep dobe."

"TEME!…Good night."

And with that the two sleep deprived boys fell into an easy sleep. Neither were aware of the slight haze of red chakra that flowed from Naruto's navel. Nor were they aware when the red chakra influenced Naruto's sleeping mind into sleep-walking again- sleep walking right into the Uchiha's bed. The blond boy curled up under Sasuke's covers against the other boy. The red chakra withdrew leaving the two boys dreaming peacefully together.

O0o.o0O

Onyx eyes opened slowly to bright sunlight…wait. That wasn't sunlight. That was shiny yellow hair. _What…? _Somewhere in the muddle of murkiness that was the Uchiha's first thoughts of the morning, it slowly registered that he was seeing Naruto's hair, and if he was seeing Naruto's hair, then that meant Naruto must be in his bed…, …, …. "Argh!"

With a thump, Sasuke threw himself backwards and out of the bed, his heart was pounding in his chest. The sound of his fall woke Naruto, who gave him a quizzical look before yawning.

"Yaawwnn…whatcha..yawn…doin' on the floor, Sasuke?"

"You were in my bed, dobe"

"Hmm? What are you talking about? I'm in my own bed, teme. I haven't moved," said Naruto, snuggling into the pillow to try to fall asleep again.

A vein was pulsing in Sasuke's forehead. Naruto could be such an airhead. In a sudden whoosh of air, Naruto found himself flying out of bed. He climbed off the floor spitting in spite,"TEME! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

Sasuke merely brought his hands down from where they had been making a seal sign for a jutsu he had copied from some opponent or another, and stuck them in the pockets of his pj pants. "I told you, dobe: you were in my bed."

Naruto looked around the room, taking in his bearings: sure enough, he had been in Sasuke's bed. He laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Oops, well… I wonder how that happened."

"Tch…such an idiot," Sasuke mumbled under his breathe. He didn't mumble it quiet enough, because Naruto still heard it.

"Well at least I'm not an insufferable jerk will a stick up my ass, bastard!" yelled Naruto. The Uchiha wasn't even paying attention, or he appeared not to be. He turned away from the shouting blond boy and pretended to be focused on packing. He was turned so that Naruto wouldn't be able to see the small smirk adorning his features- there were few things in this world that he enjoyed, and irritating the blond was one of them. He was sure Naruto felt the same way about their arguments. To everyone else in the world, they appeared to be the worst of enemies or very competitive rivals, but in reality, they were the best of friends. They needed each other as stress relievers. That's all Sasuke would allow because, as he always repeated to himself especially when Naruto was near, he was **asexual! **

Naruto went right back to being his chipper self, the argument doing great wonders on his outlook. "Hey, teme, what are you doing?"

Sasuke grunted, "Packing my things for the return journey. What else would I be doing?"

"WHAT!" exclaimed the blond, "You're leaving without even touring the city!?"

"We completed our mission, now we return. That's what we always do, dobe."

Naruto looked outraged. "Yeah, but for every other mission we're not in another hidden village! We have to go see the sights! We'll explore around today and then we'll leave for Konoha tomorrow. The old hag won't care."

"No," was Sasuke's simple reply.

"Awww…Sasuke," Naruto whined, doing his best impression of a poor puppy dog, "Pleaseeee?"

"Hnn," responded Sasuke, tuning out those big, sad, puppy-dog eyes. _Dobe, puppy-dog eyes don't work on an Asexual. _Yet even as his mind said that, he found his hands betraying him. They were no longer packing things into his bag. No. Instead, he found those hands of his unpacking the stuff he had already stuffed into the bag. _Dammit!_

Naruto started bouncing with joy when he saw the raven-haired boy unpacking. "Yes! I know where we should go!"

O0o.o0O

It hadn't been that bad, Sasuke concluded when they came back later that evening. It was dark by the time they made it to their hotel because Naruto had stubbornly refused to come back until Sasuke had watched an authentic Suna sunset. Naruto had also been stubborn earlier that day when they passed a stand selling Suna souvenirs and the blond boy wouldn't let Sasuke go on without purchasing a bottle of authentic Suna sand. Sasuke had "tched" at this- he was pretty sure he had more sand on is clothes and in his hair from touring the village than all the sand in the souvenir bottle. The best epiphany to hit Sasuke all day was that Suna was appropraitly named. But even with all this, Sasuke still concluded that the day hadn't been a complete waste. Sure, he would have preferred to be out somewhere training, but this was his first time just "hanging out." It wasn't as bad as he always assumed it would be.

By the time Sasuke had changed into his pajama pants, Naruto had already climbed headfirst under the covers with his feet on the pillows and was nearly asleep.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at the ridiculous boy before giving him a warning: "Make sure you stay in your own bed tonight, dobe."

With his head under the covers, Sasuke didn't see the light pink flush that spread over the blond's cheeks. _I wish you were gay, Sasuke, _was the last wishful thought Naruto had before he fell asleep. Sasuke set a few traps around the room that would wake him up if the blond decided to sneak into his bed again. Not that it wasn't comfortable, it was only that it was very hard to keep un-asexual thoughts out of his head when he woke up to a head of soft blond hair in his face and a toned and tanned body curled warmly up to his own…yeah, those thoughts weren't helping him at all either. So, with a mental shake, Sasuke finished setting the traps and fell asleep in his own bed.

O0o.o0O

Sasuke felt himself being yanked back into the conscious world in the very early hours of the morning. He peered around blearily searching for danger before he realized that the thing that had awoken him had been one of his own traps. Sasuke could tell from where he was laying that Naruto wasn't in his bed. Sasuke allowed himself a mental groan. _Why couldn't the dobe let him have one eventless night?_

Sasuke forced himself to leave the warmth of his covers as the crisp night air assaulted him. He pulled on his clothes wondering where the dobe had gone. His hope that the blond might just have gotten up to use the bathroom vanished when Sasuke sensed his chakra a good distance away.

Sasuke wordlessly followed after the blond. The Uchiha passed along the roofs of the Suna buildings, transferring to the ground after he almost fell when a roof ended rather suddenly. Of all the nights Naruto could've gone for a 2 am stroll in Suna, he had to pick the night of the new moon, the night there was no moon. Obviously, Suna didn't believe in having streetlights because the Uchiha could barely see the outline of his own hand in front of his face.

He came upon his blond friend a little outside of town and was able to see him from a distance because that yellow hair practically glowed in the dark. Sasuke observed the boy for a few seconds before nearly losing his temper- it looked like Naruto was sleeping- sitting Indian style yes, but still sleeping with his eyes closed. Sasuke barged right up to the blond, planning to give him a beating for making him worry….no, Uchiha's didn't worry, so he must've just been angry. So the Uchiha planned on giving Naruto a beating for making him angry.

If the Uchiha hadn't been so angry, he may taken the time to observe some more. If he hadn't been so arrogant in his own abilities, he might've activated his Sharigan for a moment to make sure everything was as it should. If it hadn't of been so dark, he might've noticed that there was a seal drawn onto the ground that Naruto was currently sitting on. And had there been a smidgeon of moonlight, he might have noticed that Naruto hands weren't folded in his lap as they appeared, but rather were in a hand seal. However, because the Uchiha had been angry and had been too self-confident, and because it was as black as pitch black could be, all of these things didn't register to him. Instead, he had his sole focus on hitting Naruto in the head. That focus was only broken when he stepped onto the seal written on the ground and a perfect circle lit up with bright energy surging through it and whiting out all vision. In that circle, both Naruto and Sasuke felt the energy zapping them and clawing at them. It seemed as if it was going to rip them apart.

When the light faded, Sasuke and Naruto's bodies slumped to the earth. Sasuke was able to catch a glimpse of red slitted eyes from the blond boy before he blacked out.

He last thought was, "_The Kyuubi…."_

The Kyuubi's eyes were wide with shock for a few moments before thinking, "_The Uchiha…this changes everything…" _Then the Kyuubi allowed his eyes to close as he gave away to the stronger mind inhabiting the body.

O0o.end chapter.o0O


	6. Back to Konoha

Another Demon Soliloquy: A thing or two explained

**Another Demon Soliloquy: A thing or two explained**

_I, the great demon Kyuubi, should have known better. It all boils down to one thing: Murphy's law- the only power to truly have an effect on me: If something can go wrong, it will go wrong._

_My entire life is just one huge example of Murphy's law. Nothing was supposed to be able to stop me, and yet I was sealed by the Yondaime. My container shouldn't have been an annoying short blond kid, and yet he is. And finally, no one was supposed to discover that I had used a rarely known seal to impregnate my host with a child, well, children. It is a one in four chance that a child will inherit the YY chromosome combination that I need to form myself a new body, so I had to creat four children to insure that I would have a body. The other three will be normal children, well, as normal as any kit from the blond baka can be. Yet the whole reason for using the seal in Suna rather than Konoha was wasted. I had hoped to keep my plan a secret until I could hide it no longer, but that all became useless when the Uchiha followed my carrier._

_But perhaps it is a good thing that the Uchiha stumbled upon the seal. I had modified the jutsu to copy the blond's DNA twice and create a child, but I couldn't get the seal to activate. As the Uchiha stepped on the seal, it suddenly began working. As such, I believe the seal reverted to its original purpose of combining two different DNAs into one (or four in this case) to create the children. That means the Uchiha is the father. This could bring about several advantages. First, I will now have access to Sharingan in my new body. Second, my new body won't be destined to have obnoxiously yellow hair. And Third, I can hold the other three children as…ah..hostages of a sort. The villagers prize their clans almost reverently. They will not let three possible Sharingan users slip out of their grasps so easily. Not to mention, the Uchiha will work extra-hard to protect what he thinks is his. This could work out to my advantage._

_Yet, there are still disadvantages. While I'm certain the Uchiha does not know what he stumbled upon yet, I'm sure he will tell his hokage, and that woman will soon discover my secret. I imagine she would have figured it out eventually anyway with the pregnancy symptoms the boy will get. _

_This plan is full of uncertainties, so many things could go wrong, but it is worth it if I once again have a body I can call my own. I must not fret over the uncertainty, because my focus is greatly needed now to help these children grow. I will have to maintain a fully functional womb with my chakra so that the newly formed embryos can grow and then I must slowly, and bit-by-bit, transfer my chakra and my seal to my new body. I only have about 30 weeks to make everything the way I want it. I must not get my hopes up yet, though, for Murphy's law still rests heavily on my mind. I fear my efforts will be in vain. _

**Chapter 6: Back to Konoha**

Naruto woke in a place he did not recognize. First of all, he was outside, and he remembered falling asleep inside. Second of all, he didn't recognize the part of the woods he was in, so that officially made him lost. Then, he saw Sasuke unconscious beside him. Not many people were able to beat Sasuke, so Naruto began to freak.

He leaned over the Uchiha and started to roughly shake him. "Sasuke!" he whispered urgently.

The Uchiha's black eyes slowly opened and focused on Naruto. Seeing Naruto, his last memories of the night before came back to him. That's right, the last thing he remembered was stamping his way through the cold dark night to find the baka and hit him.. "Dobe," he said before punching the blond in the head and sitting up properly.

Naruto was understandably outraged by this. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING? Kami, that hurt,"he complained, rubbing his sore head. "I was just making sure you were alright. There's no reason the punch me!"

"There's always reason to punch a dobe. I can always hope it will knock some sense into you," he answered humorlessly, ignoring the shout of "teme" from the dobe and instead looking around to take in his surroundings other than his blond friend. Hmm, not that he couldn't be satisfied taking in that sun-kissed muscular body, with those clear and honest blue eyes and that tight ass…_Crap, the un-asexual thoughts have come back. Now is really not the time._

So with great mental effort, he pushed all such thoughts aside and studied the markings he and the dobe were laying on. It was a seal of some sort painted on the ground. "Dobe, what is this?"

Still grumbling about jerk Uchiha's and their inherent bastard ways, Naruto gave the area a quick glance before shrugging. "How the hell am I supposed to know teme? You're the genius."

"But you led us here, dobe," Sasuke forced out through clenched teeth, trying to control his rising anger. _First the baka leads us here in the middle of the night, then we get caught up in this weird seal, and now he doesn't remember anything! _Outwardly though, his frustration barely made it through his emotionless mask- only a glint of anger in those onyx eyes.

"I did?" asked Naruto, a confused look on his face and an arm scratching the back.

"You don't remember? How much of a dobe are you?" Sasuke said, but inwardly, he was thinking, "_Oh yeah, now I remember. It was the Kyuubi again. I guess he's not really to blame but…"_

Naruto was still sputtering about the dobe comment when Sasuke hit him in the head again. "Teme! Now what was that for? I didn't do anything!"

Sasuke shrugged. _Made me feel better. "_Let's head back, then."

"Okay!" shouted Naruto, his hurt head forgotten at the mention of going back to civilization, which would mean there would be ramen. He hopped to his feet and began marching out of the clearing.

Sasuke didn't follow. He simply shook his head whispering, "Such a baka." He was going to say 'such a dobe' but he figured that if he used that every time the blonde was acting stupid, it would quickly wear-out the word. Sasuke waited in the clearing, mentally counting _three, two, one._

It was then that Naruto stumbled back into the clearing, sheepishly looking around. "Ah, haha, teme, uh, where's Suna?"

"This direction, dobe," said Sasuke walking in the opposite direction that Naruto had first left in.

"Right," said Naruto following in step behind Sasuke, "That was going to be my second guess."

They made it back to the apartment and Naruto announced, rather loudly that he was going to take a shower. Sasuke used the opportunity to grab some paper and a pen and to go back to the seal that was written on the ground where he had found Naruto. He quickly copied it, making sure to accurately draw all the circles, runes, and symbols. He remembered the flash of blue that took over his vision as he stepped onto it and he had a nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that this was going to come back to haunt him later.

Sasuke arrived back to the hotel room about the same time Naruto was exiting from the shower, well defined abs peeking at the Uchiha above the towel at his waist, hair and skin slick with moisture, and face red from the heat. _Bad, un-asexual thoughts, bad! Down, thoughts, down! I am Asexual! _That familiar mantra came back to the Uchiha's head. Then, Naruto, is his towel-clad beauty, threw himself down on his hotel bed, closing his eyes peacefully and trying to fall into a light sleep.

Sasuke was offered a view of that muscular tanned back, and, even with his mantra in place, found his hand reaching out to ghost over that warm skin. His breathing became heavy as he tried to control himself as he saw Naruto's back start twitching from the feather light touch. Oh, how many reactions could he elicit from that body if he had the chance?

"Teme?" came Naruto's voice, breaking the Uchiha from his thoughts that were taking a very un-asexual route. The Uchiha took a few steps away from the bed where the blond laid that was causing havoc to his thoughts

Naruto was peering up at him in confusion, but if the Uchiha had looked hard enough, he would have found a slightly victorious look in the blonde's eyes.

Doing as all Uchiha's do when in position they would rather not be in, he changed the subject quickly. "Get dressed, dobe. We're going back to Konoha."

"WHAT! Now? I'm tired, Sasuke!" he whined, hoping to get the Uchiha to changed his mind.

"You can sleep when we get back to Konoha. The faster we leave, the faster we get there," then, without another word, Sasuke grabbed his traveling bag and left to wait in the hallway.

"JERK!" he heard Naruto yell through the door. "_Well let him yell_," the Uchiha thought, "_ I need to think."_

O0o.o0O

It was a very unhappy pair that arrived in Konoha two days later. Naruto was angry at Sasuke for ignoring him and Sasuke was ignoring Naruto because he was the sole reason he had an "_I am Asexual," _mantra. And like the mature people they were, they talked about their problems together and worked them out…right…mature…so what they really did was take turns ignoring each other and yelling insults at each other.

By the time they were in Tsunade's office, they were both to the point where they couldn't look at each other without breaking into an argument.

"Brats! Stop fighting like an old married couple and give me a mission report," ordered the hokage.

Sasuke tried to ignore the drool on the desk and smeared ink on her cheek, but being the Uchiha he was, he figured out that she had been sleeping on her desk just minutes before their arrival.

"Baa-chan! I have the response to your scroll right here!" he said proudly, handing the scroll from the Kazekage to the large-chested woman.

She let the Baa-chan comment slide as she opened the scroll, reading Gaara's response, then wrote his name down on another sheet of paper that Sasuke assumed was the list of guests.

"Good work, you two. Naruto, you are dismissed. I need to speak to the Uchiha."

Naruto nodded happily, waved a hand, and then jumped out the hokage's office window racing to the ramen stand. He heard Tsunade yell after him, "USE THE DAMN DOOR NARUTO!"

"Uchiha, you're report," she stated, turning back to the Uchiha.

Sasuke pulled out a folded piece of paper from a pocket, handing it to the hokage before telling her about the trip. "The Kyuubi's influence seemed to disappear until our last night in Suna. That's when I awoke to find that Naruto was no longer in the room with me. I scoured the village until I found him in a clearing a little outside town. I didn't notice it at first, but he was sitting on that seal in your hands. I copied it from the ground before destroying it. Yet, as I walked unaware onto it, the seal activated. Neither the Dobe nor myself were hurt in anyway, so I do not know what the seal was there for. Shortly before blacking out, I saw Naruto open his eyes, or rather Kyuubi open his red eyes."

"The kyuubi is once again active, then," she sighed wearily, unfolding the paper Sasuke gave her with the seal on it. It was slightly familiar to her, as if she had seen it before, but with that as the only recognition she had of it, it was useless. "I must send for Jiraiya. He knows more about the seal than anyone else and I'll have Shizune look up this one too. I will also assign a pair of ANBU to watch over him to ensure nothing bad happens. Oh, Naruto brat, you're going to make me look old before my time," she murmured the last part to herself tiredly. "You are dismissed Uchiha."

Sasuke nodded before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

"Shizune!" Tsunade yelled for her assistant, expecting her to rush in immediately.

Several minutes passed and still Shizune didn't come. Tsunade got out of her comfy chair and walked down to another one of her assistants. "Where is Shizune?" she asked.

Her other assistant answered, "You sent her on a mission, Hokage-sama."

"Oh, yes, that's right. Do you know when she will be getting back?"

The assistant pulled out a list of all the current assigned missions. "She left yesterday on a two week mission."

"Thank you," said the Hokage as she inwardly fumed. How could she have forgotten Shizune's other job of reading through all those books they had found at Naruto's? And now, Tsunade had the feeling that this seal would be found in one of those books. She guessed she was just going to have to make a very difficult choice. No, she wasn't going to do all the research herself. No, she was just going to have to wait until Shizune got back before she solved this mystery. Sometimes, being hokage had certain perks.


	7. Uchiha Realizations and Drunkenness

A Scientific Fact or Two:

**A Scientific Fact or Two:**

Pregnancy is divided into three sections known as trimesters. Like a semester at school, they break the pregnancy into three month sections that can easily describe the pregnancy. A full term pregnancy from the time of fertilization is about 38 weeks, or nine months.

The first trimester consists of the weeks 1-12. Three weeks after conception, morning sickness usually begins and can last until the end of the first trimester. For multiple births, appetite usually increases to meet the increased calorie needs. As the changes in the body push on the bladder, frequent trips to the bathroom are also expected. The first trimester carries the highest chance of miscarriage as well.

For shinobi, more symptoms are to be expected including fatigue as a new being begins to draw chakra from one's inner coils. Also, difficulty controlling one's chakra from the first week to the end of the first trimester should be expected as the body tries to balance itself from the loss of chakra to the child. Both symptoms grow worse with multiple children as greater need for chakra arises, putting more pressure on the body.

**Chapter 7**

The week after the pair had returned from Suna, there had been no major missions, nothing imperative to Konoha's survival, nothing dangerous. As such, the hokage had ordered the previous Team 7 to once again get together to train. It was supposed to be a time of fun, catching up with old friends and seeing how much they had learned. Not so for a certain kyuubi container and a particular Uchiha.

"Dobe! Watch what you are doing! You almost made that jutsu implode." An imploding jutsu would explode back at the user, sometimes resulting in their death.

"Argh! Why won't this work!?" bellowed Naruto, scaring some birds out of a tree. He couldn't even do a simple shadow clone right today.

Kakashi looked up from his little orange book, a lazy eye drifting over the two. Sasuke looked as if he had just started sparring, while Naruto looked like he had just come from a battle. He closed his book with a snap. "Naruto," he began lecture mode, "It looks like someone has become a little rusty in the chakra control area. Why don't you practice climbing trees for a while instead. The rest of you are free to leave. Oh, and Naruto, you might want to get another shirt." He opened his Icha Icha paradise book once more, walking away from the trio, as Sakura followed.

Naruto looked down at his tattered shirt a moment before he tore it from his frame. Sasuke was once again assaulted by the muscular visage. The Uchiha tried to tear his eyes away from the broad chest, well-defined abs, and those guns he called arms, but the Uchiha failed miserably. No amount of screaming _I am Asexual _in his head could save him now. Luckily, Naruto was too upset about his own failures that day to even notice the Uchiha.

"DAMMIT! What's wrong with me? I've never had trouble with kage bunshin before!" yelled Naruto, completely unaware of the Uchiha watching him. With a shout of determination, the blond threw himself up a tree, climbing with chakra in his feet. About halfway up, his chakra control wavered, making him slip off the tree. His shout of panic brought Sasuke back to his senses in which he quickly resumed the time-honored old game of catch-the-falling-dobe.

"Dobe, give it a break for today. Maybe you're just tired," advised Sasuke, surprising himself.

Naruto looked at him, befuddled, "Was that the emotion known as 'concern' teme?"

Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead just dropped the baka from where he had caught him. Naruto barely had time to turn in the air to land on his feet. By the time the blond looked up, there was no Sasuke in sight.

The blond took to bellowing again. "THANKS FOR NOTHING TEME!"

O0o.o0O

That night Sasuke awoke, breathing heavy and moaning Naruto's name. He had just had a rather explicit dream about his blond friend. It had started out as a normal dream, with the pair getting into an argument, which then progressed into a sparring match, in which they both slowly lost articles of clothing until they were wearing nothing at all, and from there…well, let's just say it took a more sexual path. He crawled out of bed stifling a groan at his realization that he had just had a wet dream about his best friend, his _male_ best friend. _'There's no way I'm...but that dream…I enjoyed it.' _There was a bang, which was Sasuke hitting his own head against the wall, trying to clear his thoughts. All it did was give him a mental image of Naruto cradling his hurt head gently. '_Oh kami! I really am gay!' _he thought in despair. He looked at the alarm clock and noticed that it was only 10:30, understandable, since Sasuke normally went to bed at 9:00. He quickly got dressed- after his mind and body had cooled a bit- and then went to do the only thing that made sense. _Sake, and lots of sake._

O0o.o0O

Maito Gai required that his "little flames of youth blazed together in the passion of youthful companionship" from time to time. In other words, he liked his old team to get together every now and then, usually to go out to eat. Tonight was one of those times. The old team of Neji, TenTen, and Lee, along with their sensei, walked in together to a restaurant with a bar. Normally, the team stayed away from any place with alcohol, as Lee was a natural master of the drunken fist, but this was one of the few restaurants still open after everyone had gotten back from their missions of that day.

They had suspected drunk nobodies to drift around trying to start a drunken brawl, they had expected men who couldn't walk straight to try to take TenTen and Neji (thinking he was a girl with his long hair) home with them, and they had expected to have to deal with Lee trying to get his hands on a bit of sake. While all of that did happen, what they didn't expect was to see a certain raven-haired member of Team 7 sitting at the bar and pouring sake down his throat as fast as it would empty out of the bottle. But seeing as how that was what they were currently looking at, they decided to try to see what was wrong, or rather Gai and Lee tried to see what was wrong.

"Tell me, you passionate flame of my rival's team that burns with the fire of the youthfulness, why are you trying to extinguish your youthful flames with the impassionate liquid of lost passion?" Gai then gave Sasuke his best glittering smile, hoping to make the boy tell him all due to his infallible youthful coolness.

What he got in return was a death glare and an empty sake bottle (Sasuke was already opening another) thrown at his head, which cracked him on the forehead before bouncing off and then breaking on Lee's. It seemed Sasuke was still a brooding, yet powerful, little man, even when he was so drunk he probably couldn't even see straight. Both Lee and Gai were identically rubbing their heads. It was rather freakish. Noticing that the Uchiha was still shooting them both a death glare that could've killed lesser men, Gai quickly shoved Neji in front of Lee and himself saying, "Here Neji, you are the passionate expert on how the flames of the brooding burn. You must help him regain his normal burning passion." Neji's eyebrow twitched as Gai and the rest of his team stalked off to find a table.

Neji waited in silence for five more minutes before he prompted, "Well?"

"Well what?" grunted the Uchiha. His forehead was resting on the bar counter, and he was somehow drinking sake out of the sideways bottle. Neji suspected he was using chakra for the feat.

"Are you drunk enough yet to tell me why you feel the need to be drunk?" Said the Hyuuga in his mightier-than-thou voice.

Sasuke grunted again, only this time it was in the effort of pulling his head off the counter to try to glare at the Hyuuga, but because he was drunk, there were three Neji's when he looked up and all he could do was glare blearily, trying to get them to form into one image again. He gave up his effort and his head dropped back to the counter with a thunk.

"I think I'm gay." That was all the Uchiha said, though it was said quite slurredly.

It was also all it took to make Neji sit down beside the Uchiha and order some sake for himself. Taking a huge gulp, he asked the Sharingan user, "Why do you think you're gay?"

"Naruto."

Neji's eyebrow twitched. Was this going to turn into a guessing game? 'Naruto what?' he wondered.

The Uchiha didn't offer any more clues as to what he meant, so Neji began trying to fill in the blank.

"Naruto called you gay?" A negative shake came from the drunken Uchiha's head, still resting on the counter.

"Naruto asked you if you were gay?" Another shake of the Uchiha's head.

"Naruto tried to set you up with a gay guy?" Negative shake once again.

"Naruto…" he was cut off by the Uchiha.

"It wasn't anything Naruto did."

Hyuuga wasn't considered a genius for nothing. It quickly clicked in his mind about what the Uchiha was upset about. "You're having sexual thoughts about Naruto."

Sasuke started banging his head into the counter. Neji would take that as a 'yes' then.

"Oh…" Neji, for once, didn't know the answer.

Sasuke struggled to get off the stool and put down his money on the counter to pay for his drinks. He swayed once he got to his feet.

"What are you going to do about it," asked the Hyuuga, feigning disinterest.

"Nothing…nothing can be done. I still have to revive my clan, and Naruto can't help me do that." Of course, how he said that wasn't quite that clear. The drunkenness had turned his speech into a slur, not that the Uchiha could notice at that moment.

He stumbled out the bar door to his home, or tried to. He was down some street that he thought he took on his way home, though at the moment, he didn't really recognize anything.

"Oi, teme!"

Ah, he recognized that, the sake making his normal mask slip to be replaced with a content smile. _Naruto._

Naruto saw Sasuke stumble, then trip over his own feet. He rushed over to his raven-haired friend to find out what was wrong. When he arrived, the smell of sake greeted his nose.

"Dude, you are so wasted!" he laughed as he helped Sasuke standup again, supporting him as he walked. '"Let's get you home."

"Na…ruto?" he asked, trying to stop his swirling vision. "Whad er ya doin her?"

Naruto patted his belly fondly. "I just broke a personal record at Ichiraku's- 20 bowls of ramen in less than 5 minutes!"

"Dobe, you er such a dooooobe," he said. Probably not the most intelligent thing he said that day.

"Whatever teme. You sure are weird when you're drunk. I'm not used to seeing another expression on your face other than the I've-got-a-stick-up-my-ass look."

Sasuke looked up at him blearily and confused, "You want a dick up your ass?"

Naruto blushed, "NO TEME! That's not what I said. I said, 'you have a stick…' You know what, never mind. We're at your house anyway. Where are your keys?"

"I don't know."

"Teme! Stop being so difficult! Where are your keys?"

"Dobe, I don't know."

"Argh, I'll just find them then," said Naruto, starting to go through all of Sasuke's pockets.

"Oi, dobe, what are you doing?" exclaimed the Uchiha, one of Naruto's hands in his front right pocket. "Hands all in my pockets without even a kiss to begin with."

"Relax teme," he said jiggling the keys he found. "I was just getting the keys to your front door."

"Hn," said Sasuke with a bit of a frown, as if he were pouting.

Naruto laughed. "You know teme, you have a sense of humor when you're drunk. Here, hold on to my shirt while I unlock the door." Sasuke used Naruto's shirt to balance himself.

Naruto dragged the Uchiha to his room and let him fall onto his bed, forgetting that the Uchiha was still holding on to his shirt. As a result, Naruto went tumbling to the bed on top of the Uchiha. He tried to scramble back up to his feet, but the Uchiha had a death hold on his shirt.

"Sasuke, you need to let go of me."

"Hm…dobe, you know, everything would just be a lot easier if you could have children."

"What?" asked Naruto.

Sasuke used the opportunity of Naruto stunned silence to kiss him on the lips.

"Sasuke?" No answer. "Teme?" Still no answer. Sasuke had fallen unconscious. The Uchiha breathed in deeply and then released the breath in Naruto's face still up next to his. The stench of sake reminded Naruto that his best friend was definitely drunk.

'_Nothing like that would have happened if he hadn't been drunk,'_ thought Naruto with a sigh as he untangled his shirt from Sasuke's hand. '_No use in getting my hopes up then. He won't even remember what he said and did in the morning.' _He finished tucking Sasuke into his bed before leaving, being sure to lock the door as he exited.

Naruto was right. Sasuke didn't remember anything the next morning, or if he did, Naruto couldn't tell. Their team practices continued like always, except for Naruto's increasingly faulty chakra control. Naruto couldn't help but be a little sad. He had told himself not to get his hopes up, and yet he did anyway. He wouldn't pursue the Uchiha though. '_He needs a woman who can give him what he really wants- a clan. I can't give him that.'_

Little did Naruto know that deep inside his mind, behind the gates of the seal, a certain nine-tailed kitsune laughed evilly at Naruto's thoughts. _Oh how little the humans know._

O0o.o0O

Shizune's first stop when she returned from her two week mission was Tsunade's office. She dragged her tired and sore body all the way up the stairs of the tower. Too tired to even raise her arm to knock on the door, she instead banged her forehead on the door. She should get the rest of her shinobi team back for abandoning her with a report in her hand, leaving her to go to hokage before bed.

"Enter," was heard within the room, and so Shizune followed the command.

"Tsunade-sama, our team has returned from our mission and…" She never got to finish as Tsunade rushed over and gave her a bear hug. Shizune sweat-dropped at the hokage's childish actions.

"Shizune! I missed you so much!" Shizune was feeling rather proud of herself right then, for having so much honor from the hokage. But the hokage's next words killed all that smugness. "I've needed you here! I need you to finish reading all those books by the end of the week and find out how they relate to this seal," here Tsunade flourished a piece of folded paper that the Uchiha had given her. If she had looked up at Shizune's face at that moment, she might have thought Shizune was trying to do an impression of a goldfish.

"By, by the end of the week, Tsunade-sama? How many drinks have you had today. There are so many books. I don't think it's possible to finish them all."

Tsunade fixed Shizune with a look that made the black-haired medic-nin fear for the woman's sanity, "If there is anyone able to do this, it's you Shizune. I suggest you get started right away!"

"Yes, hokage-sama," said Shizune dutifully. Tsunade had her whipped, that poor subservient assistant known as Shizune. What made it worse was that she had signed up for this.

O0o.end chapter.o0O


	8. A Surprise Party

**A/N: **Yo, I should apologize up front for being a procrastinator about getting this chapter up. However, since that's a _mature_ thing to do, I'll just settle for blaming the things around me, like a nice immature person would. So, this chapter, I would like to blame my Calculus teacher (you know how most teachers say 'do numbers 1-35 for homework?' Yes, well, my math teacher says 'Do _pages_ 1-35 for homework in this nice thick AP Calc Practice Test workbook!' That was honestly my homework assignment for tonight. It's legalized torture, I tell you.) and I would also like to blame fanfiction dot net for hosting such dang good authors. If I could blame a specific one for writing so well that it keeps me entranced and keeps me from doing my own work, I would have to blame LD 1449 for ALL of his/her works (they're awesome). Well, I think you've waited long enough for this chapter already, so I'll get on with it.

**Chapter 8**

A few days after Shizune returned Sasuke found himself in front of the Hokage in her office.

"Uchiha, you will escort Naruto to the surprise party and you will not let him know what is going on," she ordered.

"Hn," came his typical response. Quite frankly, Sasuke did not do parties. He didn't like them. He didn't enjoy them. He avoided them all, best friend's party or not. It was a lot like his stance on alcohol. Of course, he had broken that one the other week and it had led to a bunch of dreams about kissing his blond-haired dobe. He mentally sighed as he remembered that they were just dreams and that they would stay that way no matter how much he could've swore he tasted Miso Ramen on his lips when he awoke.

"Uchiha," said Tsunade warningly, wanting a clearer answer from the boy. It was pointless. Sasuke had already disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Infuriating brats," whispered Tsunade to herself. She just hoped that "Hn" meant "yes" from the Uchiha boy. If she was having to translate it anyway, she thought, she might as well imagine that it meant, "Hai, Tsunade-sama. As you wish." She could always keep her fantasies of respect.

O0o.o0O

"Uchiha Sasuke." The emotionless voice sent a chill down the raven-haired man's back. Only one person had such a blood-freezing voice- Gaara of the Desert.

"Gaara." He stated plainly, giving nothing away in his voice, much like the red-head. However, his eyes made his true emotions clear. They pierced Gaara with a stabbing glare, the black orbs tinting red as if they foresaw a coming of bloodshed.

Gaara ignored it. He had seen more hateful eyes in his childhood glaring at him. He had learned to block those out, and he could certainly block these out as well. After all, what he was doing was for the greater good- the greater good of Naruto.

"Is Naruto yours?" The redhead asked quite bluntly. Well, they call it blunt, like the bluntness of the butter knife, but that was misleading. A butter knife could not so quickly cut the chase, and pin the point inescapably down.

"Naruto is none of my concern. He is, at most, an annoying friend," said Sasuke coldly. He had just found fresh reason to despise the demon of sand. Gaara was venturing into dangerous territory, as a Uchiha's emotions were always dangerous. That is why they tried to keep them concealed under lock and key. If they couldn't conceal the emotion, it was quickly covered in lies and half-truths, distorting what was real so that the Uchiha could once again have comfort in knowing that what they felt was safe and hidden.

It appeared that Gaara was either ignorant of the dangers of pressing a Uchiha about his emotions, or that the sand demon was just stupid for knowing and trying anyway. "At most an annoying friend…" he murmured, more to himself than to the Uchiha. "I wonder," he said, now directing his voice at the Uchiha, "I wonder if you truly believe that. I've told you once that denial does not suit you, Uchiha. However, I shall not worry over it. I gave you all the chance I believed you deserved to sway our blond friend. Now, I believe that I will have no regrets if I pursue him for myself. You had your chance, Uchiha. Farewell."

Sasuke was left staring at a swirl of sand that quickly disappeared. Sasuke stood in the empty side street where Gaara had chosen to confront him just minute ago. The Uchiha just stood in indecision- so he had lied and Gaara was wrong. Sasuke certainly held some emotions for the blond ( he dared not label it, for once you name something- like a dog- you can never seem to get rid of it). Sasuke went so far as realizing that he was probably homosexual. He could deal with that. He had denied himself of more at other times. It was still within his power to ignore _it, _whatever _it_ really was. Homosexual or not, Sasuke still wanted to revive his clan, and for that, he would deny himself of this other desire, this _desire_ for Naruto. '_Damn you, Uchiha, you just named what you had for Naruto. You weren't supposed to name it. Now how am I going to get rid of it?'_

With a frustrated huff of breath, Sasuke stormed off down the road. His irritation nearly palpable- not even the fan girls were trying to entice him today. Maybe it was the fierce scowl or the obsidian orbs bleeding into sharingan red, but everybody just knew to stay out of his way.

Everyone _smart_ that was.

"Dobe," so much frustration had never been poured into one syllable before, but somehow Sasuke had accomplished what few others could only dream of. Apparently, they just didn't have the right motivation for frustration. Apparently, they didn't have said dobe trying to sneak up on them from behind.

"I nearly had you that time, teme," laughed Naruto, pulling the sharp kunai away from where he nearly had it pinned under the Uchiha's chin. "Distracted?" the blond asked.

"Hn," was Sasuke's redundant answer. At first, all those long years ago in the academy, it seemed like an ingenious answer to any yes/no question, as it could mean yes, no, and maybe, all at the same time. Now, however, it seemed as though Naruto was able translate "Bastard Speech" (as the Blond liked to call it) quite easily.

Naruto stored the kunai safely in his belt weapon bag saying, "Damn, and there I thought I was getting better at stealth to be able to get so close to you without you noticing."

A smirk came to Sasuke's face, "Your thoughts are as trustworthy as a hungry snake in a coop of chickens."

It suddenly seemed as if Naruto and regressed to his 12-year-old self again. "Say that to my face you bastard!"

Sasuke forced his lips not to quirk into anything other than a smirk. He would not allow Naruto any stronger a hold upon him than the blond already held. "I already have," Sasuke told the demon-container.

Naruto puffed out his cheeks, scuffed his feet in the dirt on the ground, and crossed his arms stubbornly in anger, exaggerated of course, as Naruto's actions always were.

"Why were you trying to sneak up on me, dobe?" asked Sasuke, starting to walk down the street again.

Naruto followed like an obedient puppy. Sasuke grinned mentally at the thought. It was all he would allow himself.

Naruto put on a huge smile, his eyes closing to make more room on his face for his growing grin. "Aren't I allowed to test my skills on you, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke's brow twitched at the honorific. Naruto, obviously wanted something. Sasuke had three guesses what, but he probably needed only one chance to guess correctly.

"What do you want, dobe?"

"Well, seeing as it _is _my birthday, and seeing how I haven't eaten anything for supper yet, it wouldn't be so bad for me to try to con a ramen dinner off of you, right?" said Naruto in his most charming voice. If there was one thing Naruto was better at than Sasuke, it was being able to charm nearly everyone he came across (well, everyone except the villagers whom still believed he was the Kyuubi, but Naruto was slowly winning even those over). The charm and his ….'_Damn! He's using the puppy-eyed look again!' _thought Sasuke in alarm. That Look spelled disaster. Sasuke was quickly looking for a way out of that puppy-eyed gaze.

"You still want Ramen?" '_Ask questions to make Naruto change his facial expression, that will work' _thought Sasuke. He continued, " I thought that's what was making you sick these last few days." The old Team 7 was still training together in the mornings, and, like Sasuke had just said, Naruto had been showing up to morning practices looking rather green. He had tried to play it off as just a small something, nothing to be worried about. The rest of Team 7 had just accepted this without question until Sasuke had nearly not escaped being hurled on. Sasuke had had many objects hurled at him in his life- kunai, shuriken, and fangirls' bras, just to name a few – but never had anyone hurled the contents of their stomachs at him. They had tried to get Naruto to let Sakura look him over really quick, but he just shoved their concerns aside saying that he just had finally found a flavor of ramen that didn't settle with his stomach very well.

The days that followed, Naruto had put on a mask of cheerful healthiness for the team, but Sasuke was aware that Naruto was still chucking out the contents of his stomach every morning before and after practice. It was beginning to concern even the great "Emotionless Teme."

Sasuke personally thought that title was a little bit rich coming from the dobe. Sasuke supported his claim with the fact that Naruto was the one usually subject to Sasuke's two most prominent emotions- irritation and anger.

Naruto tore Sasuke from his thoughts with his answer. "Ah, that? That's nothing to be worried about. Probably just the Ramen God complaining that I don't eat enough of the stuff."

"So says the dobe who just broke a personal record for eating 20 bowls of Ramen in under five minutes," said Sasuke. However, as soon as those words had left his mouth, his brow furrowed in thought. Where had he picked up that knowledge? He couldn't exactly remember anything like that happening, but yet, the memory seemed like it was there, just out of reach. Thinking about it even more, he realized that it had been part of his dream that night he had gone out drinking, the night he had realized that he was gay. '_It was just a dream. Darn, what a slip. Now, Naruto is going to want to know where that statistic came from. Great. Am I supposed to tell my best friend that I've been having sexual dreams about him? Definitely not._ Those thoughts ran through the Uchiha's mind quickly. He was expecting a million different responses from the blond, all possible responses except:

"Haha, I can't believe you remember that! You were so drunk off your ass that night it wasn't even funny. You could barely walk! Great ninja you are."

Sasuke resisted the urge to groan. If that much of his dream was true, was the rest true too? Was the kiss real?

Trying to quell the panic rising up in him, Sasuke asked, "Did I do anything else…questionable?"

Naruto's eyes glossed over in memory. It seemed to be a good memory as a grin was plastered on his whiskered face.

"Dobe," Sasuke practically hissed.

The blonde finally answered, "Hee, that's for me to know and you to wonder about until you buy me ramen!"

"I'm not buying you ramen, dobe."

"But Sasuke! Please!" he whined.

Sasuke looked to the sky. To all the world it appeared as if he were praying to the kami for patience. However, he was really just seeing what time it was. He had, in a matter of "Hn'ing," promised to make sure Naruto showed up for his surprise birthday party. Now, the Uchiha employed an ancient shinobi trick for the clockless and watchless village (time-of-day no jutsu, if you please). The sun was set just enough. Sasuke would just have to hope that the rest of his supposed hang-over induced dream was actually a dream. Surely the dobe wouldn't still be talking to him if it were not, right? Some voice in the back of his head said, _'Right, unless Naruto was gay, which you've already questioned him about and which he dodged answering.' _ He pushed all such worry aside. He was on a mission, given to him by the hokage herself: escort Naruto to the hokage tower at the proper time for the surprise party and be sure that the party remains a surprise. Worrying about the sexuality of his friend could be saved for later brooding.

"No, dobe," said Sasuke, cutting off Naruto's whining.

"Teme! Why not?"

Sasuke turned down a street that would take him back to the hokage tower. He spoke over his shoulder, "Because we have a meeting to attend. We are to report to Tsunade immediately." He voice gave away nothing.

"A MEETING! That old hag! Today was supposed to be my day off! It's my birthday!" Naruto yelled, getting left behind by the raven-haired man.

"Hurry up, dobe. The meeting is not getting done any faster by you complaining."

"Stupid old hags, and stupider bastards. Trying to ruin my birthday," mumbled Naruto, still refusing to follow the Uchiha.

"Don't worry, dobe. You're still the stupidest of us all."

"Argh, Sasuke, you take that back!" shouted the blond, now chasing after the Uchiha.

At the pace they were going, it only took them a few minutes to reach the hokage tower. By then, Naruto's anger had thankfully worn off. Naruto started off towards the hokage's office, but Sasuke stopped him.

"Hn, Dobe. The meeting is to be held in one of the large Jounin Conference Rooms, as all of the Jounins are to attend." It was a good lie, because it would explain all the chakra signatures coming from inside of the room of the "hiding" party-throwers.

"Teme, why didn't you just tell me that to begin with?" said the blond in typical Naruto-fashion.

"Because I'm a teme, right, dobe?" Naruto growled, but followed the Uchiha down the hallway nevertheless.

As soon as Naruto had dragged Sasuke back to Konoha from the defeated Orochimaru, Tsunade had given Naruto the rank of Jounin. A year later, Sasuke had regained enough trust from the council to be able to make Chunin and then Jounin as well. However, neither of the two boys (technically men, since Sasauke had been 18 for some months and Naruto had just turned legal that day) were not trusted enough by the village to be allowed to become ANBU or Hunters, so they had just maintained the rank of Jounin and had taken B, A, and the occasional S class missions.

The Jounin conference room door was right in front of them. Sasuke dropped his pace so that he would be behind the dobe. The unsuspecting dobe opened the door and…

"SURPRISE!" shouted the room of people.

Naruto just stared for a few seconds in silence before turning back to Sasuke.

"Teme, I think we have the wrong room. This doesn't look like the Jounin's meeting we were searching for." The bad thing was that the blond was completely serious.

Sasuke nearly failed to keep his cool and cold Uchiha persona. He wanted so badly to burst out laughing at the blond. Yet, he resisted the urge.

If old hags were stupid and bastards stupider, then there was no doubt now on the Uchiha's mind that Naruto had to be the stupidest person in Konoha.

Yet, even after thinking that, Sasuke couldn't help but notice that it suited the blond. It made him…unpredictable and, therefore, interesting.

'_But he's still a dobe,'_ thought the Uchiha.

**A/N: **Next chapter- another Gaara and Sasuke confrontation and a medical revelation! Hopefully to be up within a week!


	9. Jealousy and a Sober Kiss

**A/N: **What's the excuse this week for being a few days late? It's an actual excuse for once: AP Calculus Exam…it was a killer. Here's the next chapter:

**Chapter 9**

If anything good could be said about Naruto's "blond moment," it would be that he recovered quickly from it and with much more grace than he normally would show. With a rising blush and a nervous back-of-the-head scratch, the demon container played off his mistake well.

He then went off to greet all of his friends and adopted family members. Many of them gave him gifts or cards. Naruto neatly stacked everything on a corner table to open later. Now was the time to talk and be cheerful. Tsunade sort of put a damper on the cheerfulness, however, as she had decided that there was to be no alcohol present at the party. Being a heavy drinker herself, she had probably only made the rule so that she didn't have to clean up after a bunch of drunk shinobi. Nevertheless, Sasuke could've sworn he caught the hokage taking sips out of a mysterious flask from her cloak when she thought no one was looking, but when the Uchiha tried to make a closer inspection, there was never any flask to be found.

After 30 minutes of quietly standing by the wall, patiently enduring the shallow conversations of several fan girls, Sasuke Uchiha ascertained that he had been there long enough. He was about to sneak out the exit door when he caught sight of a certain dobe whom the raven-haired teme had believed lost in the crowd of well-wishers. He was there, speaking with Iruka and Anko (whom seemed to have a new relationship together). Naruto's blue eyes were hidden behind upturned "u's" of merriment and Sasuke couldn't help but take in his appearance. Sasuke quite suddenly realized how long Naruto's hair had gotten. The demon container had slowly let his hair grow out over the years, finally pulling the back into a low pony-tail when it began getting in his way. He let the front roam free, cutting it just enough to stay out of his eyes. He looked oddly like the Fourth, especially since he had moved his forehead protector (which was on black band of cloth) to his right arm and let his bangs fall onto his forehead where the yellow strands contrasted wonderfully with his tanned skin and the bright locks seemed to make those blue eyes brighter still. Sasuke's obsidian eyes then roamed to the blond's toned ninja-body. A black fish-net, short-sleeved shirt clung to the tight muscles that bunched and quivered sensually with every movement of the blond, no matter how slight. An orange jounin vest (from heaven knows where) with front pockets full of scrolls and other ninja objects and a red Uzumaki swirl on the middle of the back practically screamed "Naruto!" The vest rose up just enough when Naruto stretched or bent down to reveal a short sliver of blue boxers with ramen cups on them, but the boxers were all-too-quickly covered by Naruto's shorts. He had on loose black shorts that ended mid-knee. On the left, a kunai pouch was strapped with orange medical tape beneath it. On the right, he had the kanji for "ramen" written down the side in orange that matched his vest. The clench of jealousy invaded Sasuke's chest as he realized the blonde had probably gotten the idea to put the words of what he wanted on his attire from Gaara, who had the "Ai" kanji, "love," tattooed upon his forehead. So, Gaara wanted love and Naruto wanted Ramen, but what did Sasuke want? The raven-haired avenger briefly played with the idea of tattooing the kanji for "Naruto" in a hard-to-see area and asking Naruto to search for it. The Uchiha pushed that out of his head as soon as it entered- no use in getting all worked "up" in this company. It was the last thing he needed, especially if one of his fan girls caught a glimpse of something like that and got the foolish idea that they were the reason behind it. The unwanted groping would probably increase ten-fold.

Watching the blatantly happy blond, Sasuke fell into quiet-thinking-mode (others call it brooding). Was reviving the clan THAT important that Sasuke would waste this chance with Naruto? _'What chance with Naruto? You haven't made any move to get a chance with him and for what reason? There's already the high probability that he's gay. And if not, Naruto's not one to think less of a person for their sexual preference. It can't be the fear of rejection,' _inner-argued the Uchiha. It was about this time that Naruto was now among the sand trio- Temari, Kankuro, and _Gaara._ That was right. Gaara also wanted his dobe. '_Now you're possessive over the idiot,' _Sasuke told himself, '_This doesn't look like it's going to fare very well for your future children, or should we say, the lack thereof.' _

The brooding nature of the Uchiha was reaching an all-time high when it was brought to a screeching halt.

"I take it you haven't told him yet," came a stoic voice to his left.

Black eyes took in the appearance of the white orbs of the Hyuuga prodigy. "There is nothing to tell. I am an Avenger, and once I have enough power to destroy my brother, I will do so. After that, I will become the reviver of my clan. Naruto cannot fit into my future."

Neji watched Naruto as he laughed and joked with Gaara. Gaara- another person that Naruto had forced into seeing the light. Did Naruto's unknown power of granting other's the gift of recognizing the truth not work on the Uchiha? Or was the Uchiha so stupid that he would deny the truth until the day he die? Perhaps he was just stubborn, or perhaps more likely still, the Uchiha was a masochist, and would endure the pain of yearning for Naruto while with someone else for his 'ambition' he had come up with when he was a foolish 12-year-old? Why could he not see that everything he ever wanted was standing just across the room?

"Naruto seems close to the Kazekage," Neji observed.

"Hn." The Uchiha's conversation skills hadn't improved it seemed.

"Naruto's not exactly the most hated villager any more. He's grown handsome. Even the girls of the village have begun to notice him as something more than a troublemaker, some of the guys too," continued the Hyuuga.

The Uchiha's eyes stayed focused on Naruto, not even sparing Neji a glance. "What are you getting at, Hyuuga?"

"Naruto is being offered more and more chances to settle down and have a family everyday. He has a number of people that could make him content enough. Being an orphan, it's rather surprising that Naruto hasn't already started a family of his own so that he can give his children the love he never received."

Sasuke finally turned to glare at the Hyuuga. That black gaze seemed to shout, "Get to the point, NOW!"

"Either something is holding Naruto back, or he is holding himself back. Perhaps he is waiting for a certain someone. He could make you happy. Wait much longer, and he may give up on you, and then your chance at happiness would be gone forever. Could you be happy for him if he found someone else?"

"I could cope," answered the Uchiha stiffly.

"Could you?" mocked Neji with a quizzical brow. Sensing the elevated killer-intent focused on him from the Uchiha, Neji decided to bring the conversation to an end. "I've spoken with both you and Naruto, and I can tell you that Naruto feels as strongly for you as you do for him. That is all I will say. Farewell, Uchiha."

Sasuke began to brood again, this time thinking about his conversation with Neji. When he came back to reality, the guest were leaving and Naruto was addressing him, "Teme, don't tell me you stood in the corner and brooded the whole time."

"Hn," said Sasuke, watching the parting guests.

"Well, you can at least keep me company while I pack up everything. I noticed not once today when you were lying to me about a Jounin meeting did you ever even wish me happy birthday."

"Fine," agreed the Uchiha, now watching Naruto seal all his unwrapped presents into a scroll and stick the scroll in his front pocket. Well, all the presents except for two- two identical pairs of green spandex.

Naruto laughed nervously as he picked the horrific suits up. "I just didn't have the heart to tell Gai and Lee that I didn't need another set of green spandex. I already have a pair from last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and well…more sets of green spandex than I will ever have need to wear," said Naruto in way of explanation.

"I have an idea, dobe. Set them on the floor."

Curious, Naruto did as he was told. He had hardly taken two steps back for the terrible fashion pieces before he heard, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu." A small ball of fire erupted from Sasuke's mouth and set the spandex ablaze.

After waiting for the last thread to burn, Sasuke was surprisingly the first to speak: "That was surprisingly fulfilling."

"Yeah," chimed Naruto, fully intent on bugging Sasuke later for that technique so that he could burn the rest of the spandex suits he may ever be given.

"Well, goodnight teme. Thanks for coming, even if you did lie to me about the whole Jounin meeting and everything. I'm kind of surprised you stayed for the whole thing. I figured you would sneak out 30 minutes into the thing."

Sasuke very nearly sweat-dropped, since he'd had every intention of doing just that. "Hn," he said before walking off to recover from his…whatever you would call that. He made a small waving gesture over his shoulder to Naruto without looking back.

After leaving the building, Sasuke noticed Gaara was still hanging around outside. Sasuke debated with himself as he walked out of sight. Curiosity caused him to double back and eavesdrop on the redhead.

The blond dobe of an individual exited the building a few seconds later, a large smile plastered on his face.

"Uzumaki Naruto, might I speak with you a moment?" asked the kazekage.

With a quizzical look, Naruto granted the sand-man his request with a nod.

Gaara disappeared in a swirl of sand, only to reappear in front of Naruto and take the blond's hands into his own.

"Ga-Gaara," stuttered Naruto uncertainly, trying to pull back.

Gaara leaned forward and whispered into Naruto's ear. "Act natural, Naruto. You're lover boy is watching."

"I sure hope you're not talking about yourself," retorted the kitsune with a snort, though he stopped struggling.

"I am not. The Uchiha watches in jealousy," said the redhead cryptically.

"That's nice and all, but why are you doing this? I was pretty sure you were seeing a _girl_ in Suna last time I visited- you're as straight as a flag pole, or so I thought."

"I am, but you know I hate the Uchiha. Watching us like this must be torture." The pair was still close together, taking turns whispering into each other's ears. It seemed rather romantic, and that disgusted the watching pair of jealous obsidian orbs.

Naruto chuckled. "So, what's the real reason?"

"He hesitates. I know he wants you. I will make him act on it. It's for your own good."

"I'm glad you think so highly of my happiness, but please stay out of this. Sasuke has his own dreams and I will not interfere with them."

"You are too kind Uzumaki," said Gaara, stepping back and releasing Naruto's hands. Sasuke could finally see their lips and could read them.

"Maybe, but this is not what I want. I will woo my own lover. Goodnight, Gaara-san. Thank you for everything."

'_He turned him down!'_ Thought the Uchiha with excitement. '_I may not have lost him yet! If I make a move, I must make it tonight. Neji is right. Future dreams be damned!'_

The Uchiha quickly made his way around the corner to wait on the dobe.

He didn't have to wait long. Naruto rounded the corner and paused at the sight of the Uchiha. The whole thing could've been rather awkward, but Naruto found a way around that.

"Aw, Sasuke-teme, waiting around to irritate me some more tonight?"

"Hn…" answered the Uchiha falling into step beside the blond as they made their way down the deserted road. With the Uchiha's thoughts centered on how to 'make his move,' it turned into a rather quiet walk back.

"What's wrong teme? You seem… I don't know…distracted or something," asked Naruto as they neared his small apartment.

Sasuke was torn. Did he want to take the chance to make Naruto his? Did he was to give up his dream of the revival of his clan? It was all so difficult to decide, and he hadn't even had his proper "brooding" time to come up with a course of action yet. His thoughts strayed to a night much like tonight when he had had a drunken dream of kissing Naruto. It had seemed so real, even the taste of Miso on his lips. Could it have been more than just a dream? And if it was, and the two had actually kissed, and judging by the fact that Naruto was still hanging out with him, could that mean Naruto reciprocated those feelings. Sasuke looked up at the dobe to see that he was waiting for an answer.

"I was just thinking…about that night…when you brought me home when I was drunk…what did I do?"

Naruto began chuckling, "You made a fool of yourself, that's what." Naruto leaned in conspiratorially and whispered in Sasuke's ear, "But if it makes you feel any better, you made a fool of yourself in true Uchiha fashion."

Sasuke quirked a brow at this. "How so," he asked.

"Yep," Naruto said rather loudly, a fox-like gleam in his eye, "Uchiha fashion: thoroughly, primly, and perfectly."

"Tch, dobe," said the Uchiha, walking away and obviously upset at that.

"Hey, teme! Running away to brood?" yelled Naruto after the Uchiha's back.

That made Sasuke pause. "I don't run away from the likes of you. And I certainly don't brood!" He added, after remembering what the dobe had said completely.

"Your in denial, Sasuke, admit it."

"Dobe, if I admitted it, I would not be in denial. Which I'm not," snapped the raven-haired boy.

"Teme, what's got you wound up tighter than TenTen's pigtails? You normally aren't so snappish, but recently, it seems as though all we do is argue."

_Whoa! Stop there! _Shouted Sasuke's inner voice. _Now we're even arguing like a couple!_

"Dobe, I'm not wound up. I just wanted to know what happened that night I was drunk, and you're here laughing at my expense," said Sasuke, fully ready to walk away.

He only got half-a-step in the other direction when Naruto appeared in front of him, an odd look on his face. "I didn't mean to laugh at you Sasuke, it's just…you really want to know?" The Uchiha nodded. The darkness of night didn't seem to do anything to hide Naruto's blush. "I helped you get home, and then I broughtyoutoyourroomand-youwouldn'tletgothenyoukissedmeandsaidyouwishedIwasabletohavekids. There, you happy?" asked Naruto, it all rolling off his tongue in quick sucession. He determinedly looked away from the Uchiha, and Sasuke could practically feel the heat of blush rolling off of the blond.

"I kissed you…why didn't you say something sooner?" asked the Uchiha, looking deep into those azure-blue eyes that were even now evading his own black orbs.

"You were drunk…soooo…it didn't really mean anything…right?" asked Naruto, only to be met with silence. After a few moments of the continued absence of sound, Naruto finally ventured to look up.

When he did, it was to see those clear obsidian orbs mere few inches from his own. 'When did he move? When did he get so close? He didn't even make a sound!' thought Naruto.

Naruto's breath caught in his throat as those black eyes tried to discern the look in his blue eyes, and then they ventured to look at Naruto's pink lips.

Time seemed to stand still as Sasuke connected their lips to together for a second time, third if you count the accident at the academy. It was seconds of pure bliss as one set of lips felt the slick warmth of the other. And all too soon did time begin ticking again, second by second, and the Uchiha pulled away.

He began walking towards his own home again, only pausing as he drew even with Naruto to say, "This time, I was not drunk."

It was all he said, but those few words filled Naruto's head with thousands-upon-thousands of thoughts. '_What does that mean? What about his dream of reviving his clan? Did he give that up?'_

Meanwhile, the Uchiha had his own thoughts: '_I can't believe I just did that! So sudden! He's going to be so freaked out? He's going to hate me and think I'm disgusting!'_

That marked a turn in their relationship. But what direction would it take? It was all up to them now…

O0o.end chapter.o0O

A/N: okay, so _next _chapter they'll find out about the kyuubi's little surprise. It just didn't fit into this chapter, sorry 'bout that. You know how it is-the author doesn't write the chapter always. Sometimes, the chapters like to write themselves. Especially that kiss scene. That definitely wasn't in my original plan for this chapter. But whatever. Good chapter? Review please. Bad chapter? Well, just look on the bright side-you only wasted about 15 minutes of your life reading it (mind you, if it is bad, I wasted 3 hours writing it.).

Authoress out,

Tiki Rane Gobell


	10. The Secret Unwritten Laws of Konoha

Chapter 10: The Secret Unwritten Laws of Konoha

**Chapter 10: The Secret Unwritten Laws of Konoha**

Like a good little ninja, Shizune sat at her desk reading through the pages of the books just like Hokage-sama had asked her to. She was determined to have them all read and report in by the end of the week…which was tomorrow!

She had gone through only half the books and was now stuck on a book of medical techniques that seemed so purposeless. She threw the book down in frustration. She was never going to find anything useful in this mess! Not a single book was related to another! She caught sight of the book she had just thrown down. It had opened to a random page that had a little drawing on it. The drawing looked so familiar. Where had she seen that before? She pulled the book closer, smoothing out the page that was crumpled from the fall. '_Of course,' _she thought, _it's almost the same as the one Uchiha-san drew. This could be it.' _Finding a second wind, she began studying the book again.

O0o.o0O

"Tsunade-sama, Tsunade-sama! I've found it!"

"Found what?" asked Tsunade drowsily, holding her head- yeah, she definitely had a hang-over.

Shizine quickly noticed this. "Tsunade, how did you get drunk at a no-drinking party that YOU hosted?" asked Shizune, head dangerously large in anger. Shizune herself had only dropped by the party for a few minutes to congratulate the birthday boy before getting back to work.

Tsunade waved it off, "Konoha Secret Technique: Hidden Bottle of Sake no Jutsu. But tell me- did you find out what happened to Naruto and Sasuke?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama, but you're not going to like it," said Shizune, setting the book down in front of the older woman. The page was turned to show a drawing.

Tsunade glanced at the seal drawn on the page, but then did a double-take. "This," she whispered in disbelief, "but this. Artificial insimenation. It shouldn't be possible in a male." She pulled out the drawing of the seal on the ground in Suna that Sasuke had given her. The two seals were nearly the same. Nearly.

"But some of these runes are different and this," she said, pointing to one of the drawn circles, "is repeated multiple times on the one the Uchiha gave me- four circles in all. But then that would mean…" she trailed off, looking up at the black-haired woman.

Shizune finished the thought, "That would mean multiple births. And below the seal in the book- See the warning?"

Tsunade nodded and read it out loud, "Not to be employed by two males. The male body can not support a child, and the offspring in a male-male crossing would have a one-in-four chance of having YY chromosomes. The lack of DNA encoding in YY would result in a stale-born offspring and could cause harm to the carrying human."

Tsunade and Shizune fell into silence, thinking about the new information.

Tsunade began muttering her thoughts aloud, "The Kyuubi is behind this. We're sure of that. But how does it relate. If the chance of YY is one-in-four, why would Kyuubi take the chance to make four children…unless he wanted a YY child. Could he manipulate a YY's DNA? But why would the fox want that?" She fell into silence again. A few minutes later, she picked up the picture of the seal again and began studying it again. "Shizune," she said over the paper she was looking at, "Go fetch Naruto and Uchiha-san. I will know nothing for certain until I can look over the two of them."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Shizune said and then she was gone.

O0o.o0O

"Hokage-sama, Shizune-san said you sent for us?" It was Sasuke, Naruto standing nervously beside him. The blond boy kept shooting the Uchiha quick glances, but the raven-haired boy ignored it well. Was that a blush on Naruto's face? Was there something going on between the two boys? 'Nevermind,' Tsunade scolded herself, 'There's something more important going on here.'

"Yes, I sent for you. Naruto, do you mind lifting up your shirt?"

"Only for you, obaa-chan," cheekily winked Naruto, but Tsunade noticed his blush seemed to increase.

Sasuke turned to observe Tsunade as she prodded with chakra along Naruto's middle. Her brow was furrowed. It made both of the boys a little nervous, especially when she asked Naruto if he had been feeling any of a long list of symptoms, which he answered positive to.

"Now you, Uchiha. Lift up your shirt," she ordered shortly.

The two boys sent each other incredulous glances, but Sasuke gave into the Godaime. She prodded with chakra along his stomach as well, and her brow furrow even deeper.

She went back to her desk after checking Naruto's stomach again. She was checking the DNA of the children and comparing it with that of Naruto and Sasuke. There was no doubt about it- the two were going to be parents. She sat in silence, her fingers balanced in front of her on her desk, fingertips touching.

The silence finally frustrated Naruto into breaking it. "Come on, old lady, tell us what's up? You furrow that brow any more and it'll make a wrinkle that will show through your genjutsu."

Right after he said it, he cringed, waiting to feel Tsunade's massive strength punch him through a few dozen walls. But no pain came. He peeked open one eye to see Tsunade glaring at him, yet not hitting him. The blond boy glanced at Sasuke who nearly imperceptibly shrugged his light shoulders as if telling Naruto he didn't have a clue either as to Tsunade's strange lack of violence.

"What's wrong, obaa-chan? Why didn't you hit me?" Naruto asked, truly concerned.

"Because, by common standards, it is not looked very well upon someone who hits a pregnant person, Naruto-chan."

"Naruto-chan? PREGNANT?" yelled Naruto, stuttering in his own fury of the two implied injustices done to his masculinity. He once again shared a secret glance with the Uchiha. The barely noticeable twinkle in those black eyes calmed Naruto down- the Uchiha obviously thought this must be some kind of jest. The thought of him being pregnant was ludicrous. So ludicrous, Naruto started laughing at it.

"OH, HA, ha, ho,hahaha," he laughed, trying to catch his breath. "I see what this is about…aha…ha…So you found out that I didn't stop Ero-sannin from peeping on you in the bath house a couple of weeks ago…ahaa..he promised to teach me a new jutsu if I let him spy..ahaha…took you long enough to get your revenge…but props…I almost believed you….NOT! What a stupid joke, obaa-chan. I suppose you would've told me next that the Teme was the father of my pretend child…ahaha…hah…you must be slipping in your old age." He fell into more laughter, laughter that the Uchiha actually joined into, even if it was just a light upward twitching of his lips.

A vein was pulsing in Tsunade's forehead. Naruto quickly noticed as the ticking vein became visible from a distance. It shut his laughter right up. Tsunade sure didn't look like she was kidding.

"YOU LET HIM DO WHAT?" The Godaime yelled. "Oh, wait until I get my hands on that pervert. He'll soon be missing a valuable part of his body. If he wasn't out on an information-collecting mission right now, I'd castrate him in front of the village." She fumed to herself.

Naruto was now a little bit worried. "This isn't about Ero-sannin?"

"No, I've been trying to tell you Naruto. You're pregnant. Look." She pulled out the seal Sasuke drew and the one in the book. She quickly explained the meaning of it all and everything that had been going on during Naruto's nightly sleep-walks. Naruto was just staring at her blankly.

"Naruto?" Tsunade asked.

Naruto seemed to snap to. "Sorry, Obaa-chan, but you lost me at the part where you said I was pregnant. It's not possible. I can't be pregnant, obaa-chan. I'm a guy. I can't have a child."

"Children, actually. Four of them. That's what I've been trying to explain to you, Naruto, and Sasuke's the father of them. You see, this seal that Kyuubi drew in your sleep artificially combined your DNA with his. The seal was changed in two ways, however. There was a new section of runes that I think was supposed to let you duplicate your own DNA so that you could reproduce on your own- asexually, if you will. But the change didn't work. Sasuke tells me that it wasn't until he accidentally stepped into the sealing circle that it began to work meaning he is a contributor to the children. And the other change to the seal is the repetition of it. It created four embryo's inside an artificial womb made of Kyuubi's chakra. The only reason I can find for as to why the Nine-tails would want four embryos is because there is a one-in-four chance of a male-male crossed child ending up with a YY DNA sequence." She leaned back in her chair and sighed heavily. This was giving her a headache and she knew Naruto wasn't even understanding it anyway. "The child would not be able to survive. Maybe the Kyuubi plans to use that child's body for its own purposes, but I don't know. You'd have to find Jiraiya. Maybe he could answer that question." A dark silence fell over the group at Tsunade insight. The Kyuubi could be trying to escape its confinement inside Naruto. That could be bad, real bad.

The silence lasted only so long before Tsunade broke it, trying to lighten the mood. "Well, you're pregnant Naruto, with Sasuke through a new type of parthenogenesis- reproduction without the sex. Congratulations. I'll put it in the medical books and name it after you. We'll call it Uzumaki Parthenogenesis- the Uzumaki Virgin Birth."

Naruto coughed nervously, "But, uh…um…I'm not a virgin." He then muttered something about Ero-sannin, pervert, training trip, and all-inclusive studies. This caused both Tsunade and Sasuke to look him over once more. Tsunade disapprovingly as a mother-figure, and Sasuke like a jealous lover, though they were not quite lovers yet. _Might as well be. _Thought the Uchiha. _He's carrying my children. CHILDREN… FOUR OF THEM!_

Tsunade waved it off, "Mere technicality, Naruto-_chan_." Naruto bristled at the chan. "The idea is still the same- becoming pregnant without sex. Jiraiya's nightmare has become real- there's a human who physically does not need sex to reproduce."

Naruto began coughing nervously again and scratching the back of his head. Tsunade was kind of freaking him out talking about sex all openly and shit. Quite freaky, not to mention she was his mother-figure and an old lady. That actually made it kind of gross.

Naruto pushed those thoughts from his head with a sigh. "Am I really pregnant, Obaa-chan? This isn't some type of sick, cruel joke, or maybe I've just got some tumor or something that you're confusing as pregnancy?"

"I wouldn't be _that_ cruel, Naruto," answered the Hokage.

"What am I going to do?" Naruto asked nobody in particular. Sasuke could easily see the worry on his face. _Why is he so worried?_

"I guess we'll have to tell the council about this," sighed Tsunade, as she thought of all the work that would entail.

Naruto's eyes filled with fear as he looked about frantically, as if he were searching for a safe place to hide. Finding no such place, Naruto practically begged Tsunade, "Please, baa-chan! Don't! They'll kill me! Keep this a secret, please! They'll kill me, baa-chan!" Sasuke eyes widened at the display of raw fear from the boy- the boy who had a fearsome demon inside him, the one that faced down Shakaku, the one that could face off against Orochimaru without so much as a whimper. But now, the boy who never seemed to know the emotion of fear was suddenly struck by it. It pained Sasuke's heart to be able to see his fear, but be unable to put an end to it.

Tsunade appeared to be in a likewise situation. "Naruto, certainly you must be exaggerating just a bit," she said with a chuckle that died on her lips as she saw Naruto's fear-filled eyes. "Surely they wouldn't kill you for such a thing. Shinobi have children everyday. This may not be the conventional way, but they are just babies after all. The council may try to get you to abort them, but they have no power over such things."

Naruto's head shook furiously, and her heart seemed to sink. "No, baa-chan. I thought you knew. They were supposed to tell you. You are the new Hokage. You're supposed to know."

"Naruto, what are you going on about?"

"The Laws."

"There are no laws against this Dobe," said the Uchiha.

"Not the written laws."

"Then which…" trailed Sasuke.

Tsunade's eyes filled with understanding. She cut the Uchiha off, "The Secret Unwritten Laws of Konoha. But, there should only be one these days, the one about not mentioning the Kyuubi to the younger generation."

"No, Tsunade. There are five."

"FIVE? In all of Konoha history, there have only have been three unwritten laws at most at a time to deal with the most secret of Secrets. Naruto, tell me the Unwritten laws."

"We're not allowed to speak of them, baa-chan, you know that, but…" Naruto did a series of seals and a cloud of smoke appeared in Naruto's hands. When the smoke cleared, there was a scroll in his hands. The blond boy said, "I wrote them down, mostly so I could review them for any loopholes that might give me. I've only found one so far, but that's not really here nor there." He held out the scroll to Tsunade who took it with shaky fingers. These unwritten rules were dangerous and they had her nerves on panic-mode. She unfurled the scroll while Sasuke moved around the desk to better read over the Fifth's shoulder.

It read:

**The Secret Unwritten Laws of Konoha, now written by Uzumaki Naruto. These are the secret laws of the Leaf as began by the Third and added on to when need necessitated by three-fourths vote of the council. To break or to reveal any of these laws warrants death.**

**Law I: No one may ever speak of the Kyuubi or of Uzumaki Naruto being a demon container. Written by the Third on the day of the sealing of Kyuubi.**

**Law III: Uzumaki Naruto may not use physical violence against any non-shinobi citizen of Konoha. Passed by the Council on the day I entered the ninja academy.**

**Law III: To protect the image of the Leaf, Uzumaki Naruto may never reveal the Kyuubi to anyone unless the dangers of the mission necessitate it, or the current Hokage orders it with the approval of the majority of the Council. Passed by the Council on the day of my graduation from the academy, on the day I learned of Kyuubi within me.**

**Law IV: To protect against possible release of Kyuubi from S-class missions, Uzumaki Naruto may never rise above the rank of Jounin. Passed by the Council on the day I was promoted to chunin.**

**Law V: For the sole purpose of preventing any chance of offspring under the Kyuubi's influence, Uzumaki Naruto may never marry nor partake in the act of sexual intercourse. Passed by the Council on my 16th birthday.**

"Our village…has laws like these?" asked Sasuke, staring at Naruto in either pity or wonderment.

Naruto would have neither. He ignored the Uchiha and turned instead to his grandmother-figure. "Baa-chan, we _can't_ tell the council. I have broken the law indirectly with these babies. They _will_ kill me."

Tsunade grasped her head in her hands, "What would you have me do, Naruto? They're unwritten rules. We can not change them. Contrary to popular belief, the Hokage does not hold all the power in Konoha. We just do the paper work."

"Tsunade…I can't…give them up. I won't let them kill the babies, and I won't let them kill me." The room fell into silence once again. The other two seemed to have forgotten the Uchiha was still there. He wanted to ask Naruto more about these laws, but he would wait. Now was not the time. It was the time to calm the man he wanted as a lover, and now carrier of not only Kyuubi, but also his children.

"Send us on a training mission, year long at least, longer if possible. We can get away from this village and keep the council from finding out about the babies."

"Send 'us' and 'we?' Just who exactly do you plan on me sending with Naruto?" asked Tsunade.

"Me, of course. Logically, I am one of the strongest Jounins Konoha has, so I can protect him. Plus…they're my children too, aren't they? I won't let anyone hurt them, Tsunade-sama." The thankful look Naruto sent him at his suggestion made Sasuke's heart flutter. Whatever bonds the two had had just seemed to become stronger to the Uchiha. Was that because of the children of the way? Naruto's childen? His children?

"That's all very good and noble and all, but do you plan on delivering the babies yourself? Like I said, this isn't going to be a traditional birth. Naruto's going to have to be here in Konoha to have _your _children. That is, assuming nothing goes wrong with the rest of the pregnancy."

"It will be fine. Naruto and I will leave the village under the pretense of a training mission. We will set out to find Jiraiya, who is the closest thing we have to a seals expert that will aide us and he can tell us Kyuubi's plans for that YY child and give us options. We can hide out where we need to and keep a low profile. When Naruto starts…showing, he can disguise himself as a woman," this was met with a snort of outrage from the blond, but Sasuke continued on ignoring it, "and then, when the time comes, or when we run into trouble, we can come back to Konoha, disguised of course."

Tsunade carefully considered the options. It seemed as though this might work. In fact, it seemed like the only viable option for Naruto other than death by the council. Hands more resolute, they handed Naruto back his scroll of unwritten laws without shaking.

"Very well. I will assign the two of you a training mission. I will also get together some vitamins for you, Naruto, to take with your pregnancy. And you, Uchiha, I have some books for you to read about pregnancies and the like. They should prove valuable. I want a report at least every month, every week would be better, but I know that won't happen, so I won't delude myself as such. By your seventh month, Naruto, I want you back in this village for a check up. You may have to live in a nearby village for a month before that, if you wish to make it. With four children, regardless of the fox's chakra, it's going to be hard for you to travel."

She looked around the office at the two boys, two boys about to become true men in this world, two boys with enough determination to find a way to keep this family they created by accident. She was suddenly reminded of younger times. She gave them a warm smile.

"Prepare yourselves for the journey…and…well…good luck, you two."

"Thanks, baa-chan," said Naruto, giving his mother-figure a hug before leaving her office with Sasuke by his side.

O0o.end chapter.o0O


	11. Naruto’s Philosophy

Chapter 11: Naruto's Philosophy

"Naruto?" began Sasuke as they were heading home from their very informative meeting with the Hokage.

"Hmmm?" asked Naruto, caught up in his own personal thoughts. Kami knows he had enough reason to be so distracted- he had just found out that he was pregnant for pete's sake!

"How do you handle it? Living here with no hope to be able to fulfill your dreams?" Sasuke asked. He had always imagined that he had it worse than Naruto. He had once had a family, but they were all killed by Itachi. He knew them, so he missed them sorely. His whole life was dedicated to avenging them. Naruto, however, had never known his family and so Sasuke had always imagined that he hurt less with their absence. But then the Uchiha found out about the Kyuubi and the villagers' hate of the boy, and his opinion of Naruto increased- they were equals in suffering. And now this? These laws limited Naruto's life so severely that Sasuke could not see how Naruto could smile all the time.

Speaking of smiles, Naruto's face lit up in one right now. "What are you talking about, Sasuke? There's always hope!" said the blond-headed boy happily.

"Naruto, you don't have to lie to me. If those…laws," he almost called them torture devices, "applied to me, I would have left Konoha for good a long time ago."

Naruto thought about this for a few minutes in silence as they continued down the street. No one was paying any attention to their conversation, so they could talk as normal villagers, as long as they didn't reveal anything dangerous. Finally Naruto answered the question. "There were times…on my bad days…my darkest hours - as cliché as it sounds - where I lost track of my hope. I considered leaving, but then, as I packed my bags, I realized that leaving would be running away, and I won't be a coward. I won't let them control my personality too. There were other times when I was so lonely…so very lonely…and I wished I could just end it. I thought about taking my life too, but I came up with the same answer as I did for running away- I would not let them make me into a coward. So I stayed."

"You could've had a better life. You could've found someone who wanted you," was Sasuke's retort.

"I don't need someone to want me, Sasuke. They need me here."

Sasuke nearly laughed at this. They needed him? "Naruto, they've turned you into a scapegoat for all their problems. They don't need you; they're using you."

"That may be how you see things, but from my prospective, they need me. It may be the wrong way to look at it, but it's the only way I have." Naruto looked into Sasuke's coal-black eyes. They urged him to further explain his philosophy.

"As we're walking down the street, don't pay attention to me. Pay attention to the people we pass. Take a short glimpse into their lives."

A bit confused, Sasuke followed Naruto's instructions. At this time, they were passing a house. Inside, shouting could be heard, even through the thick walls. A door was thrown open and the argument came out into the street. A husband was yelling at his wife, cursing and hollering. The wife was in tears in the doorway, screaming, "Don't leave us! Think of your children!" As Naruto passed by in his terribly-bright orange vest, the man caught sight of him. The man's anger at his wife disappeared to be replaced with repulsion of the demon container. Naruto simply glanced up at the woman and the man jumped in front of his wife, shielding her from view. The man apparently felt the need to protect the woman from the 'demon.' As Naruto walked past, Sasuke heard the husband apologizing to his wife. Had Naruto just ended their fight with merely his presence?

Intrigued, the Uchiha continued to watch the people around him. As they passed children, their parents pulled them into hugs or gave them other forms of affection. Other parents that had been neglecting watching over their children began to search for them to be sure they were safe and to put them back under their watchful eyes. They wouldn't want their children turning out like that parentless monster, now would they?

And still further down the road, they came across a bar. A fight between drunk civilians and shinobi alike had broken out and was spilling out onto the street. Yet, as soon as Naruto was in sight, they all stopped punching each other and shot their hateful glances at Naruto instead of the person they were just trying to punch into the ground. Several gave their opponents a helping hand up as they all turned, united, to glare at the demon container as he passed.

Believing Sasuke had gotten a good idea of what he was talking about, Naruto took to the roof tops and didn't stop until he was atop of the Third's head. If he was going to teach Sasuke his philosophy, then being on "The Professor's" head should be a good thing, right?

When Sasuke landed beside him, Naruto looked out over all of Konoha.

"You see, Sasuke, this village needs me, scapegoat or not. For some, I serve as a reminder that tomorrow, there may be another attack. Tomorrow, their family may not be alive. In a day, they may not have any precious people left, and so they hold them closer. Arguments are forgotten, hate is redirected, and all that is left between them is their own special bonds. For others, I serve as a constant threat. They believe that at any given moment, Kyuubi may burst from my belly button and destroy the village. It unites them, like nothing but a common enemy could. They can, while I'm around, forget their other differences and get along. Maybe I am just a scapegoat, but that's my job. It's all I have, Sasuke. That's why I stay here." Naruto looked back at Sasuke for his reaction.

"That's a pretty messed up way of thinking, dobe."

Naruto laughed humorlessly, "Yeah, it is, isn't it."

"BUT, it does have some intelligence to it, very unlike you. Who taught you to think like that?"

"I'm not the smartest person, teme, you know that, but something like this can't be taught. You just have to make it up as you go. It's kind of a 'don't look at the ramen bowl half empty' sorta thing. You have to look at the bowl as if it is still half full of ramen. Search out the positive."

"Still, these laws…they're unfair."

"There's nothing fair about politics, teme, whatever you may think. Someone always has more power, and someone is always neglected because they're the minority. But the laws are not too bad."

Sasuke fully stared at Naruto in incredibility. For a moment, he could envision Naruto a little older with Hokage robes billowing in the breeze above the stone faces. He could see those whisker marks adorning a new head of rock beside the Fifth's face. Sasuke could hear Naruto bringing happiness and understanding to Konoha. He could almost feel it within Naruto- the ability and power to be Hokage. Was Naruto really as foolish as everyone believed? Sasuke was witnessing right then a moment when Naruto seemed to be wiser than all of them. A genius of circumstance and experience, they could call him.

Naruto laughed at the shock on Sasuke's face. He took it to be about his previous statement, which it partially was. "No really, they're not that bad. For one, they could have just killed me or locked me in jail all my life. Some of them wanted to do that. For two, like I said, there is always hope. The laws can be changed, and if I prove myself enough, I can gain enough support to get some of the restrictions removed. Apart from that, the laws have loopholes I can use. Like the fourth law: 'Naruto Uzumaki may never rise above the rank of Jounin.' The law does not say that I can't be more powerful than a Jounin, so I can still train and become as powerful as a Hokage for when I can finally convince them to let me become the Rokudaime. Another, law five says I can't marry or have sex. However, it wasn't made until after I had traveled with Ero-sannin (who made sure I had a…well-rounded education, if you can imagine), so I got to experience…yeah…all that." Sasuke gave him an odd look at that, "And because it states specifically that the law is there to prevent me from reproducing, it can be logically argued that I can still have…yeah…with a…um…guy…Not that it matters anymore now that you've already knocked me up."

Sasuke's brow twitched at Naruto's crude, yet accurate way of describing the recent turn of events. He barely managed to keep himself from hitting the mother…er..father…er…carrier of his children.

It was then that it hit Sasuke: He was going to be a father! Of little helpless beings that would be solely dependent on Naruto and himself. Sasuke's brow furrowed in thought, shock, and worry.

Naruto noticed the change come over Sasuke. "What's wrong, teme?"

Sasuke looked into those deep pools of blue that Naruto called eyes. "It's just too much to consider at once. Yesterday, I had just decided to give up my dream of reviving my clan, and then today, I find out that I am already on my way of fulfilling that dream. I'm going to be a parent, dobe, and so are you."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," sung Naruto, looking at Sasuke in disbelief. "You're not allowed to be all…expressive and shit. I was just expecting a 'hn.' A typical Uchiha reply, you know, teme?"

"Hn," said the Uchiha, sending Naruto a dark look.

Naruto started joyfully laughing. "There's the Teme I know! This just might work out."

Above the village of Konoha, atop of one of the most brilliant Hokage's ever to live, black and blue orbs met in a silent agreement as the Uchiha's hand came up to Naruto's belly to be placed over his…no…their… unborn children. They would make this work. And the warm look in Naruto's blue eyes made the Uchiha give a small smile. 'There's always hope. We can cope with this..together.'


	12. Leaving Konoha

**A/N:** I'm back and ready to get this show on the road again! School is finished, exams completed, graduation thankfully over (I had to speak on stage. Not much fun in finishing fourth in your class), and my slight case of writer's block has passed (That was brought on by having to write a nine page research project). Since the crowd's all here, let's get this show on the road!

**Since it's been while, let's have a quick review:** Naruto had been sleep-walking under the Kyuubi's influence until he left for Suna with Sasuke. While there, Kyuubi pulled some freaky medical jutsu crap, and our favorite blond ended up preggers with Uchiha's children- four of them. Kyuubi's hoping for an YY child, because it will technically be a dead child with no soul. He is hoping to transfer his seal to said 'dead' child, and will once again have a body. Drunk Sasuke and Naruto get a little close, ending up in a kiss by the Uchiha, who thinks it's a dream. Both of them harbor secret affections for the other, so it's all fine and all until Gaara shows up and pretends to be interested in the dobe. This all ends in Sasuke showing his intentions in the blond, demon-container in the form of a sober kiss. After this delightful experience, Shizune figures out what seal the Kyuubi used means and Tsunade informs Naruto that he's pregnant…with Sasuke's children. Naruto reveals the Secret Unwritten Laws of Konoha, leading to him having to leave Konoha in fear of punishment. Tsunade assigns them a training mission in which they hope to find Jiraiya to help them. **And now that that's over with…**

**Chapter 12: Leaving Konoha**

"Dobe." The voice that said this was definitely not amused. Annoyed, yes. Amused, hell no. Sasuke had just gone through Naruto's travel bag- the one that should have the necessities of life in it for their travels over the next few months, at least – only to find it crammed full of ramen. Oh, that dobe.

"Naruto," laughed Sakura, who was seeing the two off. "You're such an idiot when it comes to ramen."

"Or just an idiot in general," corrected Sasuke in a disenchanted monotone, dumping the ramen out of the bag and hoping that there was something else in the bag besides ramen, like a tent, or a blanket, or maybe a change of ramen-printed boxers. Anything. His hopes were in vain.

"Hey!" protested Naruto, sputtering as Sasuke dumped all of his ramen on the couch in his apartment. The rest of the old team 7 had come to his apartment to see the two of them off. "Ramen is the perfect food!" Naruto bellowed through the apartment complex.

Sakura laughed again at him. "How so? It tastes terrible and is bad for you. Trust me, I'm a mednin."

"No, no ,no. You see, ramen is cheap so you can survive off it for a long time. It has tough packaging that's hard to damage. It takes a lot to spoil it and, because there are so many flavors, it never gets old!"

"Now, you see, Sakura. This is why you don't argue with Naruto about his ramen- it makes you lose your hearing for a week. Naruto, try to keep your voice down," scolded Kakashi, cleaning the wax out of his ear with his pinky.

"Dobe, what else do you have to pack to take?" asked Sasuke interrupting Naruto from responding to Kakashi. Sasuke had now packed a selection of healthier travel-foods into the blond's bag- no ramen.

"My Ramen!" he yelled.

"Na-ru-to," Sasuke pronounced each syllable by itself in his annoyance. He took a deep breathe. "You need to eat healthier." He pinned Naruto with look that said, 'Just try to go against me.' Sasuke wanted the dobe to eat healthier- especially now that he was an expectant mother…er…father…er…something.

Naruto understood Sasuke's concerns, he let his hand rest over his still-flat belly. He conceded, "Alright…only 10 packs of Ramen then."

The entire room had one unanimous sweat-drop. The youngest Uchiha gave in and packed the 10 packs of ramen, knowing it was the best he would get out of the stubborn blond.

"Where's the rest of your stuff, dobe?"

"Teme! Stop calling me dobe! And I sealed the rest of my stuff in scrolls!"

Sure enough, Sasuke now noticed a belt of scrolls around the blond's middle.

"And you didn't seal your food into a scroll because?" asked the Uchiha.

"I wanted easy access to the ramen!" responded Naruto like it was common sense.

Sasuke resisted the urge to bang his head on something hard, really hard. "Let's go, dobe."

"Ahh…Kakashi-sensei! Why do only the two of them get to go on a training mission? Why can't all of us go?" whined Sakura.

"Because Hokage-sama only said they were allowed to go," answered Kakashi.

"Bye then, Sasuke-kun! Maybe we can go on a date when you get back! Naruto," she waved at the two in turn. "I have to get to the hospital for my shift. Both of you, come back safe okay?"

"Hai, Hai, Sakura!" said the blond. "Don't worry! We'll be back before you know it!"

"Hn," agreed the Uchiha, just in not so many words.

She gave them each a final look that said, 'You'd better come back.' Then she left.

However, Sasuke and Naruto could still not talk freely, because their perverted sensei was still there reading his perverted orange book. Without looking up from his book, Kakashi threw two badly wrapped gifts. By the time they had caught them, Kakashi was gone, with a "You two have fun" floating in the air. It was kind of spooky actually.

Naruto excitably unwrapped his. Sasuke followed at a slower pace, fearing the worst from their perverted teacher.

He was right to fear.

The smile fell off of Naruto's face faster than blood would fall from Jiraiya's nose if a hot woman walked by. It was a copy of Icha Icha Paradise, a Yaoi version. _Oh._

Sasuke's gift was the same thing, only with a bottle of lube attached along with a note. In Kakashi handwriting it said, "If you get any ideas from this book, be sure to use protection."

Sasuke felt his cheeks heat up. Damn, where did his facial control go?

"So, what did Kakashi-sensei give you?" asked Naruto, breaking the perverted thoughts that were running rampantly through the Uchiha's head.

"Hn," said Sasuke trying to regain his composure. The book and lube mysteriously vanished into one of the pockets in his flak jacket in the blink of an eye. "Nothing. You?"

"Nothing at all." However, the blond said that as he was tucking something into his orange vest. Sasuke raised a brow as the kitsune boy nervously scratched the back of his head, but the Uchiha didn't catch him on it- that would mean revealing his own gift from Kakashi. Naruto cleared his throat, "So, ah, are we ready to head off?"

"Hn…" said the Uchiha,

"OKAY! LET'S GO THEN!"

O0o.o0O

Tsunade sat doing her paperwork, for once. Her eyelids began to feel heavy and she almost began to dose off. Almost, until she felt a familiar chakra signature. She straightened up as a poof of smoke and a swirl of leaves appeared before her desk.

"Kakashi-san," she greeted.

"Yo," he waved, his nose in his orange book.

Tsunade's eyebrow twitched. How dare he read that perverted excuse of literature in her office. She would give him a piece of her mind.

"I don't buy it," he said before she could say anything.

"What?" she asked.

"You would grant two of your best ninjas extended leave for a training mission, together? You're trying to hide something."

"That's ridiculous, Kakashi-san. Why would I lie?"

"That's what I asked myself: Why would you lie?" he said, putting his book away and looking his Hokage square in the eye. "But that's not what I'm worried about."

"Then what are you worrying about?" she asked, a flash of dangerous promise invher eyes.

"Akatsuki."

"Excuse me."

"You assigned me to protect Naruto from the Akatsuki, but now you have sent him out of my protection with Uchiha Sasuke."

"Well, you've already said yourself that he's one of the best. I don't see why you're worried," said Tsunade, beginning to straighten the papers on her desk.

"If a certain member of Akatsuki, say Uchiha Itachi, comes for Naruto, then Sasuke may lose himself. He may forget about Naruto," explained Kakaski.

"Are you saying that you think I do not know Naruto's limits and that I would endanger the boy that's like a son to me?"

"No, I'm saying that Naruto does not make very wise decisions when he's around Sasuke. The two of them have something…unique."

"Rivalry is what you are talking about, correct?" asked Tsunade.

"No, I'm talking about something that started as rivalry about six years ago. But now, after Naruto brought Sasuke back from Orochimaru, it's something more."

"I don't understand what you are insinuating."

"I'm saying that Naruto is going to be hurt, and it won'tbe physically. Naruto is in love with Sasuke, and I believe Sasuke feels the same for him, but once Itachi comes into the picture…"

Tsunade blinked at the realization. Now it made sense. The derisive nicknames and all the bickering were only the two flirting. Their constant spars were probably like foreplay. And the way they looked at each other when the other wasn't looking. It made sense. _Damn, why are all of my good ninja gay! _

"I don't think you have anything to worry about," said the Hokage dismissively, thinking about the children Naruto was now carrying, Sasuke's children. _Sasuke will protect what's his. _ Kakashi got ready to leave (out the window, of course). Tsunade called after him, "If it makes you feel any better, I sent them to Jiraiya."

Kakashi's one eye turned into and upside down "u." His poor, poor students. With the influence of his presents (Icha Icha Paradise, Yaoi Version) and Jiraiya's perversion, his students were likely to get together a lot sooner than one could say, "Icha Icha Paradise is the best."

Little did he know of Naruto's current status of carrier for Sasuke's children. The scarecrow had no clue that the boys were already making their own strives at having a relationship.

O0o.o0O

Not all strives for a relationship go without a hitch or two, especially not when the two people involved are some of the most stubborn people in all of Konoha, perhaps even in all of Fire Country. Yet as similar as they were, they were as different as a summer day and a winter night. Sasuke was mostly a genius, except when it came to people-skills. Naruto was an idiot, most of the time. He had moments of brilliance- mainly in battle and nearly always when discussing ideals or views on life. But, let's face the facts, he could be a real screw-up sometimes. Blame it on his up-bringing (or the lack of it), or blame it on the fact that no one ever taught him social norms, like earlier that day, when they had stopped mid-afternoon in a small town bordering Konoha. Of course, it wasn't his fault that the other guy backed his chair up, right in front of where Naruto was walking. You could even stretch it and say it wasn't entirely his fault that he tripped over said chair and fell flat on his face. However, it was defiantly the blond's fault for getting himself and his unlucky companion (Sasuke) chased over 10 miles by the man Naruto had yelled at for tripping him, especially since the man was an elite foreign hunternin, with a scroll that granted him protection from Konoha shinobi (signed by the Hokage herself) as he hunted down a missing nin from his own country. Not being able to do anything by law, Sasuke and Naruto had to run for it, blasts of fire shooting over their shoulders and singeing their hair.

They had just lost the foreign hunter nin when Naruto fell down a canyon. That was Naruto's fault too. If he had just _looked_ before he stepped… Sasuke cleared himself of his anger and focused on saving Naruto.

"Why can't you just walk up with chakra, dobe?"

"Teme! My chakra not exactly cooperating right now. Just lower a rope or something before I lose my grip!"

He had a hold on a small tree growing off a small shelf in the canyon that was somehow miraculously supporting his weight…for now. Naruto carefully transferred his weight to the shelf of rock and pulled himself up to it, waiting for a robe to drop from the heavens.

"You're a jounin. How can you still be so stupid?" said Sasuke as he lowered the rope.

"I'm not stupid! Just unlucky! How was I supposed to know the ground would suddenly vanish like that and how was I supposed to know that guy I shouted at was a hunter nin? Honestly, it's not like the guy had it tattooed on his clay mask!" shouted the blond as he tied the robe around himself.

Sasuke could feel a headache coming on. "Dobe! He was wearing a CLAY MASK! How many non-hunters wear clay masks?"

Naruto's eyes squinted in thought . Yeah, he couldn't think of any come back to that one. "Still, Teme! He could've been nicer about it!"

Sasuke was hauling Naruto up, or trying to. "Dobe, how much do you weigh!"

Sasuke kept pulling and pulling, but Naruto wouldn't come up any further.

"I might be carrying your children, teme, but that doesn't give you any right to call me fat!" came Naruto's shout. Naruto felt something on his clothing catching and searched around for it. "Oh, it's my belt. It's stuck on a corner of a rock. I'll just take it off. Give me a sec."

Naruto struggled with the buckle for a bit before he finally got it to unhook. However, as soon as the tension disappeared, Naruto went shooting up the canyon, leaving his belt to fall the rest of the way down into the ravine, then into a river, then down the river. _Figures. Of course there's a river. _

"Teme! You made me lose my belt!" complained Naruto loudly as he tried to pull himself over the edge of the canyon.

"It's not my fault you're such an idiot, dobe." Said Sasuke trying to help Naruto, only to have his hand slapped away by the blond. _He could do it himself, dammit!_

"But Sasuke! All my scrolls were on that belt!" He wheezed as he finally pulled himself over the edge and rolled onto his back to feel solid earth beneath him once more.

"Hn," came the Uchiha's response.

"TEME!" shouted Naruto. He fumed in silence for a few minutes until he remembered something that made him smile.

"Dobe, why are you so happy?" Sasuke asked suspiciously.

"I just remembered something."

"What?"

Naruto's smile got so big, he had to shut his eyes to accommodate it. "I just remembered that I still have my ramen, safe and in my backpack!"

Sasuke held back a sigh. That blond was quite an idiot sometimes. Too bad you can't pick who your heart fancies.

"Naruto, you have to promise to be more careful from now on," he told the blond, "It's not just yourself that you have to look after anymore."

"Bastard," muttered Naruto, but not quiet enough that Sasuke couldn't hear him, "Only caring about his bloodline in me. What an arrogant asshole. I feel like Uchiha breeding stock."

Sasuke was at a loss for words. What do you say to something like that? It was true, and yet it wasn't true. He really did care for the dobe, he just wasn't sure how much he cared yet. Lust was one thing, but love was another. "Naruto," he paused to think of what to say, "It's not just the Uchiha children you're carrying that make me worry. I'm just…"

He couldn't think of what else to say.

"An asshole and a bastard," Naruto finished for him.

"Maybe," said the Uhiha absently, looking for the right thing to say, "but I just worry about all this because this could be my only chance to have two things I want: a relationship with you and the resurrection of my clan. I worry that it will be taken away from me like everything else has."

The brought silence, even from the ever loud blond, fox-container. After a while, Naruto said, "I'm sorry. I'll try to be more careful. BUT!"

Sasuke nearly groaned, but, because he was an Uchiha, he suppressed it. He waited for the inevitable…

Naruto continued, "You have to treat me to ramen at each major town we stop at!"

Of course, that was the Uzumaki Method of Compromise.

They set off at a decent enough pace, always onward to the next town. It was mildly worrisome that they had just lost half of their supplies down the canyon, but both the Uchiha and the Uzumaki put that worry to the back of their minds. However, it would prove for interesting times the next time they had to camp out overnight…

TBC

A/N: I had been nearly beating myself up – not entirely healthy, let me warn you- over what to name the children. You all gave me such lovely names, but nothing I just thought: man, that's it right there. But then, right before I fell asleep last night, it was like a light bulb lit up above my head and then…epiphany. So, I have my names. But thank you for all the input. It helped me think, AND if I have any OC's I need named, you might see some of your suggested names appear. If I do that, the chapter that character makes its appearance will be dedicated to the person/people that suggested that name. Anyway, later! And, if it's not too much hassle, drop a line in the review box on your way out, please!


	13. The Unlucky Chapter

Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

_**Naruto's Ramen Song: To the tune of the "**_Battle Hymn of the Republic" _aka_ **"Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory"**

"_Oh, I'm marching, marching swiftly to the land of Ramen Gods_

_Where the broth of life is flowing in the noo-oo-dles' abode_

_And with miso to the left of me and shio to the right_

_I'll march to the eatery!_

_Glory, glory, there is Raaaaa-men!_

_Glory, glory, there is Raaaaa-men!_

_Glory, glory, there is Raaaaa-men!_

_To the ramen, I'll march on!_

_If my life ended swiftly, surely happy I would be_

'_cause my last meal was the ramen tha-at set my soul so free._

_Get the water bo-oi-ling and in three minutes you will see_

_The food that is so key!"_

Naruto then regressed to humming the song happily as he marched alongside Sasuke, who was gracefully striding. Sasuke couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor song Naruto had killed to use its tune for _that_ monstrosity. Hold on, he was a Uchiha! Uchihas would never feel sorry, especially for something out of their control! But as Naruto began his song again, Sasuke was definitely feeling sorry.

For a brief moment, the raven-haired shinobi almost brought his fist back to punch the blond into silence, as was the norm when one hangs around Naruto. BUT, then he remembered the stipulations of one who hits the carrier of his children. _Oh crap!_ Sasuke panicked. _How do you control the dobe without hitting him? Think, Uchiha, think. You're a genius._

"Oi, Dobe. Shut up." Yeah, Sasuke really had a way with words.

Naruto peeked an eye open at him. He had been marching along, eyes closed and hands behind his head. Honestly, the dobe wondered how he had fallen down that cliff earlier that day?

"Just keeping the spirits up, teme," he retorted. Sasuke noticed as the blond continued onwards and got ahead of him that a particular central finger was pointed up at him from behind the blond's back.

Sasuke nearly pulled out a kunai to stab himself in the temple when Naruto began his song anew, louder and more annoying. It was so tempting, but then, he remembered his revenge. Surely he couldn't take his own life before he killed his brother, could he? As tempting as it was, he could not.

"Hn, dobe. You do know we're not near any major villages, so I'm not taking you out for ramen tonight."

"I'm just thinking of the future, teme," responded the undaunted demon carrier before heading into the second verse again.

Sasuke tried a different approached. "If you keep singing, every ninja in all of Fire Country will be able to find us."

"I have you to protect me." His singing got louder. A vein appeared on Sasuke's forehead, followed by another, then another, and then finally…

"Damn it, Naruto! Quit singing before I rip out your voice box!"

Naruto smiled. "Took you long enough to lose control and threaten physical harm. It only took Ero-sannin two hours. You've lasted nearly eight. It's a record- your Uchiha pride should be proud."

"You purposely try to annoy people?" asked Sasuke, his brow still ticking.

Naruto nodded happily. "I start small, build my annoyingness up. It's fun to watch people lose all their self-control."

"But its purpose?"

"Hmmm…" hummed Naruto as he thought, eyes squinted. "If I had to make up its purpose, it would be that I'm forcing shinobi to see their human needs- proving they're still human, so to speak. But really, it's just so I don't get bored!"

Sasuke was, to put it bluntly, taken aback, not that he would show it. He had just discovered yet another layer of insightfulness to his dobe. _Dammit! There's the possessiveness again! _As they continued walking, Sasuke continued thinking about it. Ninja were some of the most messed up people. They chose to become tools for their leader. They were taught to kill- they knew how, when, and where. They were taught to bury their hearts, and yet, they could not. The guilt plaguing their lives really screwed up their heads. And that was only half of the ninja population. The other half had lost part of their sanity to a so-called "Power high." Give a shinobi a powerful jutsu, and he will think himself a god. And here was his dobe, who understood both sides, yet always seemed above both, and could save people from both. He was the number one knuckle-headed most surprising ninja if there ever was one. Speaking of the dobe, Sasuke was still a little curious as to this "Annoy System."

"How do you annoy people?" asked a curious Sasuke, speaking as if he didn't really care, but was simply saying something to fill the silence. However, Naruto knew Sasuke _never_ said anything to fill the silence. He kept that thought to himself.

"Well," he began loudly and with a bright smile as if it were the question he had wanted someone to ask him for the longest time, "I start with the old, 'Are we there yet?' over and over again. About 35 percent of people give in by the end of this stage. Then, I start talking loudly about whatever comes into my head (usually about ramen). Only about another 25 percent of people give in at this stage. Then I move on to complaining loudly about how boring whatever we're doing is, and how we could be doing something else. Another 38 percent will threaten physical harm by this point. And then, the final stage that gets rid of the remaining 2 percent is the loud singing. No one has ever gotten past the singing. I thought Shino was going to once when we were coming back from a mission, but then I noticed that bugs kept flying into my mouth, making me stop, and spit them out before continuing again. I was covered in nearly his entire swarm before he finally cracked and knocked me out from behind. However, you lasted a half-hour longer than even Shino."

"Hn." It was funny listening to Naruto reminiscent. Something about it made everyone around the blond happier. Maybe it was Naruto's contentment in his voice over his life, like he didn't regret anything.

It was starting to get dark, so Sasuke quickly found a good camp site and led Naruto there.

"We'll stop here for the night. You set up the tents while I get a fire going for supper," Sasuke ordered, leaving the campsite to look for wood. When he returned, he found Naruto laying beneath a tree, whistling the tune to his ramen song. No tents were set up.

"Dobe."

Naruto sat up with a nervous smile.

"Did you hear me ask you to set up the tents?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Uhh..ano…about that…you see…" Naruto didn't even have to finish for Sasuke to remember- Naruto had lost his tent along with the rest of his supplies when he had lost his belt down the cliff earlier that day. Funny how that could've slipped the so-called genius' mind. Guess it just didn't register as consequential, well…not negatively consequential.

Sasuke threw Naruto his own bag. "We'll share mine then."

It's not like it was that big of a deal. They had often shared the same tent on mission. Of course, that was before they had accepted that they each had romantic feelings for the other on some level. Now, every little thing that happened between them seemed significant. It was odd and confusing. The comfort of being best friends was gone, and they now had to learn this new sort of relationship.

After the tents were set up and supper was prepared and eaten, the two young men were ready to call it quits for the day.

As they climbed into the tent, neither boy would look at the other. If they had, they would have noticed identical blushes gracing both of their cheeks, like 12-year-olds holding hands for the first time. But it was not the prospect of holding hands that were causing the two's cheeks to heat up (along with other unmentionable body parts), it was the fact that both of the boys knew that they only had one blanket between the two of them.

Naruto nervously sat off to the side as Sasuke unfolded his standard issue shinobi blanket- not the warmest thing ever invented, nor the biggest.

The raven haired man then stripped down to his undershirt and boxers. He smirked as he felt Naruto's eyes devouring him. The dobe couldn't keep his eyes off him.

"Quit drooling and come to bed, dobe." Something felt so right to Sasuke when he said that. _Come to bed._ He could get used to saying that. And because Naruto was going to have his babies, he needed to come up with a plan that would get Naruto to stay by his side forever, where he belonged…not that he was possessive or anything.

"I'm not drooling!" insisted Naruto loudly, but nevertheless, Sasuke saw Naruto wipe the sides of his mouth with the back of his hand just in case before dressing down to his undershirt (black fish-net) and boxers too.

Naruto settled under the blanket beside Sasuke, close but not touching. The blond turned onto his side, and Sasuke saw the glimmer of reflective light off those blues eyes examining him in what was left of the light of the day. The eyes seemed to be searching his face before turning inward and then flicking back to the Uchiha's face, this time resolute.

With a nod to himself, Naruto scooted his body flush against Sasuke, arm to arm, hip to hip, leg to leg, destroying the empty space that had been between them. Their body heats mingled and mixed under the blanket creating a new level of warmth and comfort. Naruto quickly brought his face to Sasuke's and pecked him on the lips, then snuggled back into the Uchiha's side, snaking an arm around the body of the warm Uchiha and laying his head on Sasuke's shoulder.

Sasuke regarded Naruto silently, a finger tracing his lips. How did this failure-of-a-person make him feel like this, make him want more. There was no logic to it. Perhaps that was part of his attraction to the blond- he had never felt more curious about a single person, never wanted to know them inside and out, know the good, the bad, even the ugly traits they had.

Many people in Konoha would believe getting stuck with this dobe on their ninja team as a genin was bad luck. Even more would believe accidentally knocking up that same dobe through an unheard of male pregnancy was also bad luck. More still would believe falling for Naruto in the romantic sense was that bad luck again. But Sasuke, with that "dobe" curled up into his side and a warm arm around him, believed that, if all this was considered bad luck, he would be happy to be the unluckiest man alive.

He put an arm around Naruto and pulled him closer, and together they slipped off into a peaceful slumber.

Neither Naruto nor Sasuke had ever had any experience with a true romantic relationship before, and, though he would never admit it aloud, Sasuke was worried that neither of them would know how to progress one, but now he knew it was needless worry. It just came…naturally.

O0o.end chapter.o0O


	14. Rantings of a Mad Old Woman

**Chapter 14: Diaries of a Ranting Old Woman**

Probably 99 percent of people move in their sleep. It's nearly impossible not to because no one has any control over their actions as they sleep. You can almost guarantee that you will never wake up in the same position as when you went to sleep.

Sasuke Uchiha fit into that 1 percent of people who could not move so much as a hair as he slept. He could sleep on a branch not even five inches wide and not so much as totter on the edge of falling off in his sleep.

Naruto Uzumaki was Sasuke's opposite. If he fell asleep beside Sasuke, comfortably together with an arm around the other, it would be certain not to stay that way as a certain young Avenger found out the next morning. Tan legs were entangled with his own, a thigh dangerously and deliciously close to a very important private part, sun kissed blond hair spreading its ramen-y scent right under the Uchiha's nose, and strong arms wrapped securely around his chest. Naruto was practically on top of Sasuke.

Strangely enough, Sasuke had never awoken feeling more safe than he did that morning. It was especially ironic because the dobe was nearly suffocating him with his warm weight and the strangling bear hug.

Naruto looked so peaceful sleeping there, like a golden fox cub napping in the sun, albeit a real golden fox probably wouldn't be leaving a puddle of drool on his shoulder like Naruto was doing. Yet, even so, Naruto was holding on to the Uchiha like a lover would. That thought sparked off a hidden mental box of hentai-ness in the Uchiha. Some of them were probably inspired by the Icha Icha Paradise Kakashi had given him (the young Uchiha had been sneaking chapters of the book whenever he could, usually when Naruto went off to use the bathroom.). Sasuke couldn't quite figure out someone even thought up some of that stuff. It was erotic…yes…but really, quite blush-inspiring just to think of it. No wonder Kakashi wore a mask- it helped hide the blush while he was reading that stuff.

Sasuke was broken from his thoughts by Naruto talking in his sleep.

"Oh, Sasuke…mmmm…yes…right there…mmm…feels good…sas..ke."

The box of hentai thoughts opened once more in Sasuke's mind. He just hoped Naruto didn't just wake up right then, or he would certainly know exactly what was on the Avenger's mind. How could he not, it was, quite literally digging into the blond's thigh at the moment. The sexual frustration was exhilarating. The Uchiha had turned himself into such a cold, calm, and collected individual that he had nearly every aspect of himself under control. But Naruto broke that control, as easily as he broke his chopsticks for ramen. The blond didn't think about what he was doing to the Uchiha, he did not study and plan a method of attack. It was just and purely him- his blond kitsune that made the Avenger side of him break. Every level of control break for that matter, and it made Sasuke feel wondrously free, thrillingly unchained. He only feared that the blond would leave and Sasuke would be left to relock himself back up, never to escape again. But Sasuke met every fear with his sharp mind, even this one. He would keep the blond. Naruto was his. The dobe was…waking up. Damn. Sasuke's little problem was still there fully (it was a _hard_ problem to solve).

Naruto was still half asleep when he peered blearily up at Sasuke.

"Sasuke, why did you wear your kunai pouch to bed? I think one got out. It's poking me in the leg," Naruto sleepily whined. He gave 'dumb blond' a new meaning. (A/N: no offense any blondes out there.)

"I didn't wear my kunai to bed, dobe," said Sasuke. He looked off at the ceiling- anything to keep the kitsune boy from seeing his blush-stained cheeks. He was trying to will his erection away, and he knew that looking at the blond would probably just make it take longer to go away.

It took Naruto a little while to decrypt the Uchiha response to a normal-person response, and when he did, a blush came to his cheeks too. He learned a great deal about that sort of stuff under the Ero-sennin after all. Sasuke felt Naruto's thigh rub against his hardness as if to make sure his assumption was correct.

"Oh," he said lamely as he felt Sasuke's length pulse against him.

Silenced reigned supreme for a few before: "Ah, hehe, I…uh…I could help you with that…if you want, that is," Naruto coughed nervously, not quite meeting Sasuke's eyes.

Sasuke's eyes darted from trying to find interesting non-Naruto shapes on the ceiling of the tent to Naruto's blue eyes in an instant. '_Did the Dobe just offer what I think he did?'_ thought Sasuke. Last night he was nervous about kissing the Uchiha, and today Naruto was willing to…

Well, it was certainly Naruto fashion. Naruto wasn't one to wade slowly into the water. No, he would jump right in and hope that he could swim. But this wasn't swimming. No, it certainly wasn't. This was their relationship. A bond the Uchiha actually wanted to keep, brother's warnings or not. He didn't want to push for things to happen too quickly. Slow and steady's the way, right? But looking back at Naruto, he remembered all the years they had spent together. Sasuke wanted to believe that he knew the blond well enough to know that there was no such thing as too fast. The blond would never offer anything he wasn't willing to do.

Naruto meanwhile, took Sasuke's thinking-silence as a 'no' and was already starting to disentangle himself, afraid that he had made Mr. Asexual Uchiha uncomfortable. A pale hand caught his wrist to keep him from getting up.

"Sasuke?"

Sasuke nodded.

Naruto's hands shook with either nervousness or excitement (probably a little of both) as he reached for Sasuke's boxers. His ever-warm hands tickling the smooth white skin above the band, making Sasuke twitch, but also increasing his anticipation of what those hands could do a little lower. He closed he eyes so that he could feel Naruto's hands better. Those bewitching hands making even more protective barriers fall in the Uchiha's mind and heart. A hand slipped under the elastic band, teasing black curls before making contact with Sasuke's hard erection. Sasuke had thought that he was already pretty hard, but one touch from Naruto's hand belayed that idea. Naruto played with the tip of his erection, smearing around the beading precum into a frictionless lube of sorts. His member twitched and pulsed with every circle Naruto's thumb made around his head. It was a beautiful torture making Sasuke want more, oh, so much more, and yet he was unwilling to give up the pleasure of Naruto's tease right then to get more just yet. Sasuke's eyes stayed closed as he basked in the feelings Naruto's hand released in him.

And then the hand encased him, sliding down his shaft tortuously slow. Where was Naruto's normal hard, fast, never stopping pace? Sasuke could not care. Sasuke could not think. Years of forcing himself into asexualness had taken its toll on the raven-haired man. He had forgotten this feeling of his youth, his puberty. He had grown out of it, or so he told himself. And yet, now, the yearning was back. He was no longer asexual, only Naruto-sexual now.

Naruto was pumping faster and faster, the friction was back but not unwelcome. It was torture and it was pleasure. And then it stopped. Sasuke felt the hand slide out of his boxer. A whining moan slipped from his lips unbidden and he wondered what other sounds had escaped his lips without him knowing. Sasuke opened his eyes to find Naruto staring up into his eyes again. The blond continued staring into black orbs as he slipped the boxers down Sasuke's hips and engorged member, leaving them on his thighs.

Naruto licked his lips briefly and Sasuke's eyes widened, first in shock of what he thought Naruto was getting ready to do, and then in shock of the feeling of Naruto's lips encasing him. That hot mouth around his member nearly overwhelmed his senses. A wet tongue played with his head before Naruto's mouth took in all of him he could without gagging. And then began the sucking. The sweet, murderously good feeling of all his senses being overloaded made the Uchiha close his eyes in contentment once more. A tongue still played with his mouth-encased member. He was reaching the end of his endurance. He couldn't keep himself from coming for much longer. He felt like he was going to explode.

"Na-ru-to!" He tried to warn the blond, but either it was too late for warning or the blond wanted Sasuke to cum in his mouth. It appeared to be the latter, as Naruto swallowed every last bit of his cum, even licking the exhausted member clean before pulling boxers over it once more.

Naruto crawled back up to Sasuke's face. "We couldn't have you dirty up the only blanket we have with your cum, could we, teme?" Naruto mocked asked while licking his lips clean.

"No," Sasuke agreed before pulling him in for a deep kiss, deeper than any they had had before. Sasuke licked Naruto's lips, tasting his own taste. Naruto granted him access to his mouth and tongue wrestled tongue as they both fought to explore the other first. Sasuke won, tracing extended canines to their points. Naruto's tongue tried to reach Sasuke's tonsils when it went exploring. Their tongues met again in another playful match, before Sasuke finally broke them apart, still breathing heavily. He wanted to continue, but they had stuff to do that day and distance that needed to be traveled.

"We need…to pack up camp...and start traveling again," he puffed out. Naruto nodded, and they began getting dressed.

It wasn't until they were starting to pack up the tent that Naruto suddenly ran off to puke into the bushes. Sasuke followed, not exactly sure what to do to help the blond. He ended up holding his long blond hair out of the way as Naruto emptied his stomach.

Naruto straightened back up wiping his mouth clean and took a swig of water from the bottle Sasuke passed him.

"Was I that bad tasting?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto shook his head, holding his stomach. "Morning sickness. I'll start feeling better later."

Sasuke eyed him up and down. Naruto was looking rather pale, no doubt thanks to blowing chunks minutes before. But besides that, Naruto was also looking thinner. Sasuke wondered why he hadn't noticed before.

"You haven't been eating well." It was a statement. A blunt statement, not a question.

The thrill of that morning was over. It was back to the world of problems, big and small, that Naruto and Sasuke would have to face.

Naruto shrugged. "I eat lunch and supper, but I can't keep anything down for breakfast and supper seems to come back up every morning too."

"You will eat better." Again, no question, more of a command.

"Yes, mother," replied Naruto cheekily.

"Would you like me to play the mother?" Sasuke threatened, but it was in a more playful sense. Kami, it seemed Sasuke was starting to get a funny bone. It was a small one. Possibly the top joint his left pinky toe.

"Why would I want that? So, you could teach me how to brood properly like all Uchihas?" replied Naruto right back, the color coming back to him and the morning sickness starting to ease up.

"No. So I could teach you some manners and whip you for being insolent."

Naruto laughed loudly, the serious tone of the day forgotten. The sun was shining, the weather was still warm for this time of the year (mid-October), and the leaves were just starting to turn all shades of red and orange and yellow. The two took off through the woods trading insults and threats. Naruto ran and jumped. Sasuke followed wraith-like, making sure the dobe didn't hurt himself or push himself too much.

It was this increased pace that got them to the next village over from Konoha early that evening, even in time for supper. Naruto begged and pleaded for ramen, but Sasuke was resolute. He was going to get the dobe to eat something healthier, regardless of previous promises.

Finally Naruto compromised, "How about a half-ramen, half-whatever-you-want dinner, and I won't complain a bit about whatever you make me eat!"

That was a tempting offer, but Sasuke had his mind set. It would be all healthy food or all healthy food. That was that. He shook his head in the negative at Naruto's offer and began looking for a good restaurant.

"But Sasuke!" Naruto whined.

"No, Naruto." He said shortly. Naruto pouted a second longer before his face got this look that said, 'I'm about to play really dirty.' That face kind of scared the Uchiha.

"Sasuke," Naruto sing-songed.

"Hn."

Naruto grabbed Sasuke by his vest and pulled him into a nearby alley. He kissed him, slowly at first, but then more and more deeply and heated. Sasuke kissed back as good as he got. He leaned in for another but Naruto kept pulling back, dangling his slightly red lips just millimeters from Sasuke. Sasuke could feel his breath against his sensitive lips, but could never reach the source.

"Dobe!" he warned.

"All I want is some ramen. Just a little bitty mini morsel of noodles and broth! Please! Sasuke, please?"

"Ahum," agreed Sasuke readily, diving back in for Naruto's lips. They continued on until Naruto's stomach started growling loudly. Then, it was ramen time.

O0o.o0O

"Ah, I'm full now," voiced Naruto happily.

"I should hope so." Naruto had had five bowls of ramen, 2 bowls of salad, nearly a whole chicken (skinless and grilled), some fish, a couple of apples, and then had proceeded to lick his plate clean.

"Aw, teme, don't say it in that tone. I'm eating for five, you know."

"Hn. I know." Sasuke placed his hand on Naruto's still flat and muscular stomach.

"So, Sasuke! What are we going to do next?" asked Naruto excitably.

"You're going to look for that sensei of yours and I'm going to get some supplies. You dropped half of your stuff down that cliff."

"Okay! I'll go check the women's bath houses then!" exclaimed Naruto before running off before Sasuke could ask for an explanation. Sasuke had never spent any time with the Toad Hermit and knew little of his perverted ways. Sasuke shook his head and went off to do his own shopping.

Sasuke went around the town picking up items to replace those they had lost. He didn't bother getting a new tent, since Naruto and him could share one quite cozily. He did, however, get a new blanket. It was thicker. He didn't want the carrier of his children catching a cold or something of the like.

He eventually found himself in a small pharmacy looking for something to help Naruto with his morning sickness. He was reading the back of a package of herbal tea when an elderly woman came up to him. She had on a shirt with the emblem on the stores sign on it, and Sasuke hazarded the guess that she owned the store.

"Looking for something for your wife's morning sickness, dear?" she inquired politely.

"Not quite," answered Sasuke. The lady had an air of wisdom about her in her deep wrinkles, bright eyes, and grey hair. She looked like she had seen it all. Maybe this was why he didn't blow her off with one of his 'hn' responses.

"A girlfriend then?" she asked.

Sasuke didn't want to lie to her, but then, he doubted she would believe it was something closer to his boyfriend being pregnant (not that boyfriend was the proper title yet. Sasuke would have to ask Naruto about that when he saw him next.).

Sasuke nodded.

"I hope you're going to be a proper gentleman about it and ask her to marry you then. You had an equal share in creating that child too, you know. I don't like all these young kids messing around and then not taking responsibility for their actions," she scolded the Uchiha. She continued scolding him, not even giving him time for a response. "And shinobi are the worst of them. Always sleepinig around, _procreating,_" she hissed the word, "and then never getting married. It's always, 'My enemies this,' or , 'My enemies that,' always afraid of tying themselves down. It's just that: fear. They're afraid that

someone will hurt their families or that someone will kill them and so they never settle down. And trust me, I know shinobi. I was a midwife for ninja in Konoha for 40 years before I grew too old and shaky that I couldn't hold a newborn without dropping it. Oh, the secrets I know of who the fathers are of all those bastard children. It's wrong. They should marry and settle down and live as a family. Afraid someone will try to kill the family? Then the shinobi should train harder and get stronger for his family. No excuses."

Sasuke did several impressions of a goldfish, opening his mouth to cut the old lady off only to have the lady cut him off instead. He just wanted some medicine for Naruto, not a speech by some old lady that was so desperate for someone to talk to that she would attack customers' ears with that mouth of hers. And she still continued.

"And you. You have the look of a shinobi about you. You're probably planning on bastardizing that child of your girlfriend's too. Probably have a midwife like me that's going to keep your secrets. You are all alike. Even the great ones. I remember the Yondaime. He did the same." That got Sasuke's attention, and he stopped trying to cut the lady off. The yondaime had an unknown child? Who? "He knocked up his pretty little girlfriend and wouldn't marry her because the, 'Rock nins would kill her and any heirs of mine. They're safer this way,' he said. I remember delivering the baby as the Kyuubi was destroying the place. The mother died. Too much stress on her body, see? But it was the cutest little boy. A mirror of his father with blue eyes and blond hair. I had barely just cleaned him off before the fourth grabbed him and stuck him in a sealing circle. I never did figure out what happened to the boy. The last time I saw him, he was crying in pain as a spiral seal appeared on his stomach and he got these weird whisker marks on his cheeks. Never seen anything like it before. And then what does the fourth do? He falls over and dies. Leaves that boy without his proper surname and without any family at all. If I was the son of the fourth, I would sure like to know it!"

Her rant cooled down, but Sasuke's mind was whirling. This old lady was talking about Naruto. His Naruto. And he was the son of the fourth? Sasuke wondered if the Ramen-lover knew that.

The lady started talking to him again. "So you see, young man. You don't want to be leaving any of your children without a father. You train harder, get stronger, and you ask that girlfriend you so unwisely knocked up to marry you. You don't leave her there to take care of herself. You understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied absently, unusually respectfully. That was the first time he had ever been chewed out like that by anyone, and it left him with so much to think about. He paid for the herbal tea as if in a fog and then left to find Naruto.

They had some stuff to talk about. A lot of stuff.

O0o.end of chapter.o0O


	15. Naruto's Secrets Revealed

**A/N: **Warning: Filler chapter.

**Chapter 15: Naruto's Secrets Revealed**

'_The tall red-headed man followed his companion out of the rain and into a niche of the sheer rock face that blocked their path onward. It offered them some protection from the still pouring liquid of the heavens and let them reclaim some warmth to their limbs._

_Riki tried to squeeze the water out of his long red hair to little use- it continued dripping little wet dots onto the cave floor. His companion, Katashi, had it easier with shorter brunet locks. They were plastered to his face, dripping beads of water lazily down his cheek, then neck, only to disappear into his clothing. Riki had the urge to follow one of those beads further, to watch it make its slothful trail down chiseled flesh. Then, Riki would perhaps lick the drop from Katashi's bronzed skin before it could sink lower- only he was allowed lower. As Katashi's lover, it was his right and privilege._

_Riki couldn't stand it anymore. He had to have Katashi, and he had to have him now._

"_Katashi," he whispered sultrily, catching the other man's attention at once, "You look wet. Let me help you out of those clothes before you catch a cold."_

_Fabric was peeled from flesh, sticky from the moisture. In no time, the two were shivering in their clothlessness. Chiseled body was against chiseled body- Two walking, breathing sex gods gifted to mankind only to have found a soul mate in each other._

_Riki's hands traced Katashi's chest, bringing the man more shivers. _

"_Oh dear, Katashi. You seem cold. Would you like me to warm you up?" purred Riki in Katashi's ear._

_Katashi pulled Riki closer, licking along the ridge of his ear. "Please, Riki," he moaned, "Please warm me up."_

_Riki's fingers found a sensitive spot on Katashi's back that made him thrust toward the red-head. Lips met in a clash of tongues, and it just fueled the passion onward into…'_

There was a familiar chakra presence approaching. It was Sasuke. Naruto quickly stuffed the _Icha Icha Paradise: Yaio_ _Version_ into a pocket and tried to look presentable. '_That Riki and Katashi! They were quite the two rascals. They could find any reason to strip the other of their clothes and it result in hot, passionate sex. Jiraiya must really be perverted._'

Sasuke approached, catching a flash of orange book disappearing. It looked like the dobe was reading while waiting for him.

"I checked all the women's bath houses and questionable businesses. Ero-sennin isn't here," Naruto reported dutifully, jumping up from where he had been sitting on a sturdy, short hedge wall. "'Did you get everything you needed?"

Sasuke nodded, but his thoughts were elsewhere. All the way to the hotel Naruto had picked to stay the night in, Sasuke was trying to come up with a way to brooch the topic of Naruto's father. He wasn't that much of a bastard to just open up possible old wounds for Naruto. An orphan had to wonder who their parents were. It didn't seem proper just to throw around such sensitive information.

"Hey, teme! Brooding _and _walking at the same time? That's a new one!" Naruto laughed as they went down a hotel hallway to their room.

Then again, Sasuke _was_ a bastard. Why not continue the tradition?

"Naruto, do you know who your father is?" he asked bluntly.

Naruto's reaction was instantaneous. The room key dropped to the floor from his hand halfway to the room door. His blue eyes swiveled to look at him- they were wide in shock.

Naruto regained some composure and cleared his throat, picking up the key to the room and letting them in.

"Why do you ask?" he questioned, throwing his backpack into a corner.

Sasuke raised a brow. "Is that a 'yes' then?" Naruto nodded.

"How long have you known it was the Yondaime? Why didn't you tell anyone?" Sasuke rattled off, growing angry. Why was he angry? He could only wonder. Probably because he had seen the glares and the words the villagers exchanged with Naruto. If they had just known Naruto was the Yondaime's son, they wouldn't have dared.

Naruto laughed. "Who would have believed me, Sasuke? I'm their demon. I'd always wondered if I was related to the Yondaime since I first saw the picture of him when I was four and was in the Sasndaime's office. We had the same hair color, the same eye color. We looked so much alike. I used to always pretend when I was little and had no one to play with, that the Yondaime really was my father. What type of father would he be? In my games, I always imagined we'd live in this huge home, filled with relations and friends. He would get home from the office and pat me on the head, mess up my hair and call me son. He'd ask me how my day went and I'd tell him all about all the new friends I had made that day. Then we would eat supper together as a family. My mother would be there too, though I still don't know who she is. She would hug both me and my father and then shoo us away from the table and into the living room to rough house. But no matter how many times I imagined our family like that, the villagers would never tell me who I was related to. They bluntly refused to see the similarities between the Fourth and me. Eventually, while we were on that training trip, Ero-sennin told me that I was the Yondaime's son, that my father's name was Kazama Arashi. But I was not allowed to tell anyone. He said it was for my own safety. How did you find out?"

Naruto was now sprawled out on the bed, having moved there during his narration to get more comfortable. He looked up at Sasuke, measuring his words with his eyes.

Sasuke pulled out a package of herbal tea and gave it to Naruto.

"I went to get you something to help with morning sickness. The old lady there told me a story about delivering the Fourth's son. I worked out that it was you."

"She didn't use my name specifically?" Naruto asked carefully.

"No."

"Then I guess we'll let her live," said Naruto, laying back down.

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock. Did Naruto just say…?

"Joking, teme, joking. She's just an old lady. We wouldn't hurt her."

"We?"

"Ero-sennin and me. The Third gave Jiraiya the job of covering up that the Fourth ever had a son. I don't think he ever had to kill anyone…I think." Naruto shook the contemplative look out of his eyes and said, "Well, that's enough thinking for me for one day, but if you have anymore questions about my deep, dark past, might as a well get them out now!" he said cheerifully.

Sasuke thought about this. There was really only one question that came to mind. It was a real bastard-of-a-question, but since Naruto had given the invitation…and it had been plaguing at his mind since Naruto had first hinted at it…

"Who did you lose your virginity to, dobe?"

Naruto chuckled and his eyes turned into little upside-down 'u's. "Jealous, teme?" Naruto challenged.

"Of you? Never, dobe." Sasuke liked living in denial. It made him feel more accomplished somehow. It's an Uchiha thing.

"Well, Ero-sennin said that he didn't like teaching boys, and he said he would make me become a man the instant the opportunity arose. I didn't understand what he meant until my 14th birthday. He said he was going to take me somewhere special for my birthday. I'm thinking that he's going to take me to a ramen stand, but no. We end up outside this "Gentlemen's club." It was a whore house. Plain and simple, Ero-sennin tells me to chose a girl and go make myself a man."

Sasuke suddenly understood the depth to the reason that Naruto called the Sannin Ero-sennin. But he didn't interrupt Naruto.

"So I picked one of the girls, paid her well, but I never touched her. I said, 'If a white-haired man asks how tonight went, tell him I fucked you into the bed real good.' Then I left out through the window. I don't know how he found out, but for my next birthday, he took me out drinking. He slipped something into my drink, male enhancer or something. Then he took me to a whorehouse again. This time, I couldn't resist- I was drunk and drugged. I don't remember much, not even what the girl looked like, but I remember that it just didn't do anything for me. I just didn't get turned on by girls unless I had some sexual drug in me. So I started experimenting."

"Experimenting?"

"Kage Bunshins."

"You fucked yourself," the raven inserted with both curiosity and distaste.

"Not technically. They were henged into someone else."

"Who?" Sasuke asked, feeling his heart sink. He knew it wouldn't be him, not so soon after he had impaled Naruto through the chest with Chidori. What other guy had Naruto's eye?

Naruto mumbled under his breath, turning scarlet and hiding his head under a pillow on the bed.

"Dobe," he warned, "Who?"

Naruto threw the pillow at Sasuke, who caught it easily. "You, bastard!" he spit, all the while the entire spectrum of the color red took its turn on his cheeks. He began muttering about "pushy bastards who don't know anything except how to brood properly."

Sasuke, on the other hand, was in shocked silence. In a way, he was proud that he was Naruto's first male bed-partner, but at the same time he was angry that it wasn't really him. That hurt his Uchiha pride. '_If the dobe wanted to sleep with me, he should have asked me! Not have someone else pretend to be me! I bet he made my clone bottom! Uchihas DO NOT bottom!'_

"So you made me your uke," he said emotionlessly. For Naruto, no emotion on the Uchiha was worse than anger.

He cringed. "Who said anything about uke?" Sasuke sent him a dark questioning look.

Naruto hastened to explain, "The thing about clones is that with one hard jab," Naruto made a thrusting motion with his hips, "They poof out of existence, so…"

"You let your clone of me have top?"

Naruto nodded cheerfully. Sasuke let a smirk come back onto his face.

He said, "You know what they say about that, dobe?"

"What?" asked Naruto, supremely confused.

The smirk on the Uchiha's face got bigger. He said, "Once an uke, always an uke."

Naruto sputtered unintelligently for a while before he finally could form a sentence. He yelled, "You just made that up, TEME!"

But Sasuke was already in the bathroom for a shower. If Sasuke compiled a list right then of things he enjoyed the most, it would have gone: Training to Defeat Brother at top, but right underneath that would have been teasing the blond boy to the point of Naruto trying to fight him.

Maybe they could make that into some sort of foreplay in the future…

O0o.TBC.o0O

A/N: I hope this answered a lot of the questions you all have been asking in the reviews. A LOT of people wanted to know how Naruto lost his virginity which I alluded to some chapters ago. So this one was for ya'll.


	16. Icha Icha Role Play

**Warning!: Note that story has been changed to 'Mature.' Upped rating due to lemons, limes, and such. (I got tired of have two versions of the same story.) If you don't want to read M-rated material, turn back now…**

**A/N:** Anybody wondering why I would put a passage of Icha Icha (which I made up) in the last chapter? Well, here's the reason for my madness.

**Chapter 16: Icha Icha Role Play**

Naruto's anger had pretty much abated by the time the Uchiha was done with his shower. In merely a towel, Sasuke stepped out of the bathroom, moisture still clinging to his body and his hair still damp.

Naruto felt his throat clench as he saw a drop of water drip from Sasuke's hair onto the raven's chest, sliding lazily down the alabaster skin.

Naruto licked his lips excitably. _'This is just like Icha Icha!' _he thought, _'Now, how did the rest of it go? Oh, yeah…'_

Naruto jumped up off the bed to press himself close to Sasuke, who shivered as his wet skin met the cool air of the room.

"Oh dear, Sasuke, you seem cold. Would you like me to warm you up?" he whispered into Sasuke's ear.

Sasuke's box of perverseness opened again. The lid just disappeared. Sasuke briefly wondered if he would ever be able to find the lid again. But really, could you blame him? He had just read that chapter in Icha Icha two days before.

Now, Sasuke really wasn't all that cold, but if answering yes to Naruto's question gave him the same benefits as it had Katashi in Icha Icha, it was worth lying.

It may have been out of character for any Uchiha, but role playing was supposed to be like that. So, the Uchiha begged, well, as much as any Uchiha could beg. It came out stiff and far less needy than Riki's in Icha Icha probably had. "Yes, dobe." Alright, so Sasuke wasn't too good at role-playing.

Naruto followed the bead of water he had been watching with his tongue, leaving muscles twitching beneath that pale skin of the Uchiha. His fingers explored the crevices between the raven's abs. Meanwhile, Sasuke's hands teased Naruto's sensitive back, producing a surprised squeal from the blond boy every time the Uchiha passed over a spot near the lower back. Somewhere amongst the excitement, Naruto's shirt had disappeared. Naruto continued playing with the Uchiha, toying with a now-pert nipple with his tongue and teeth.

Sasuke gave a grunt as Naruto abandoned the nipple to leave a hickey on the Uchiha's slender neck.

Sasuke, ever the possessive one, took control and gave Naruto hickey after hickey on his neck, hoping to ensure that the boy would not be able to cover them up.

"Sasukeee," moaned Naruto as he thrusted his clothed erection against Sasuke's that was somehow mysteriously still under the towel.

"mmm, nar..u…to…," exhaled Sasuke breathlessly when Naruto undid the towel and let it drop to the floor then fisted the Raven's member, "Do you..mmm…remember what..Riki and Takashi…did next?" he asked, referring to the Icha Icha book.

Naruto's fingers teased Sasuke erection, latching onto the Uchiha's neck again. He released the pale neck with a wet sucking noise.

He shook his head. "I don't know. I haven't finished the chapter yet."

Sasuke whispered in his ear, "You don't have to read it. I'll show you."

Sasuke could see Naruto visibly gulp in anticipation.

The raven backed his blond up to the bed in their room, gently forcing him back onto it. He abandoned the blond for an instant, grabbing the lube from his vest pocket in the bathroom.

"How…?" asked Naruto when he saw it.

"Kakashi gave it to me before we left," Sasuke answered the unfinished question before climbing overtop of his blond. He looked like a possessive wolf bracing himself above the kitsune boy.

Sasuke put his fingers under the top of Naruto's pants, teasingly pulling them down slowly, sliding them over the hard rod Naruto was sporting. His ramen-print boxers came down with his pants, reveling an engorged manhood jutting out of blond curls. Sasuke whipped Naruto's boxers and pants off the rest of the way then tentatively grasped the engorged member in his hand. It was hot and velvety. Sasuke gave it a few experimental pumps, running his thumb along the head to wipe away the pre cum. Sasuke had…no experience at all in bed. He had some ideas, very graphic ideas thanks to Icha Icha and an old gay porno magazine Sasuke had once found in Kabuto's room during his time under the Snake Sannin. But no matter how new, Sasuke wanted to learn. And luckily enough, he was a genius, so he normally got things right the first time.

Sasuke moved back up to take Naruto's mouth with his tongue. Unclothed erection met unclothed erection for the first time and both boys instinctively thrust against the other creating a wonderful friction.

Sasuke worked his way down Naruto with his tongue. Naruto moaned at the feeling, his twitching hands worked their way into the sheets on the bed.

Sasuke stopped over Naruto's jutting member. Naruto could feel the Uchiha's hot breathe and it sent a shiver up his spine.

"Sasuke…" he pleaded, his blue eyes shrouded with need and lust.

"Do you want this?" Sasuke taunted as he opened the lube with an audible click.

Naruto nodded his head letting a needy whine escape.

"What was that Naruto? I couldn't hear."

'_Damn that bastard, always has to feel superior to me, even now,'_ thought Naruto, but he couldn't deny it. He wanted Sasuke, and he wanted him _now!_

"Damn it, teme! Fuck me now!" Naruto growled out huskily.

A smirk came to Sasuke's lips, "As you wish, dobe."

With that, he coated his fingers with lube, slicking the blonde's entrance with it and pushing his finger in to stretch him. A look of discomfort flitted across Naruto's face, but Sasuke took the kitsune boy's member into his mouth to distract him, licking and sucking.

Sasuke added another finger to stretch Naruto's entrance and he pushed his fingers in as far as they went, searching for the bundle of nerves he had read so much about. When Naruto gave a pleasured yell, he knew he had found it. He memorized the spot as he hit it a few more times before pulling his fingers back to Naruto's entrance. He added a third finger, messaging the entrance walls. Finally, Sasuke judged that Naruto was stretched enough and pulled back from the blond.

Naruto was panting, trying to regain his breath. "Sasuke…?"

Sasuke leaned forward to catch the blonde's lips.

He whispered in the boy's ear, making a shiver run down his spine, "Do you want me, Naruto? There's no going back. I do this, and you're mine forever."

"Possessive bastard…" breathed Naruto huskily. He patted his still flat belly. Uchiha babies were in there. "I already consider myself yours."

Sasuke's eyes shined with an unknown emotion. It was a new emotion, unlabeled, unfamiliar, and it was all for the dobe.

Sasuke entered the blond boy, pushing in slowly, giving Naruto time to adjust. Naruto moved his hips when he was ready, and Sasuke pulled out of the heat until just his head remained in Naruto. Then, he was pushing in again. Remembering the bundle of nerves he had found earlier, Sasuke aimed his next thrust at it. He was rewarded with a cry of ecstasy from the kitsune boy.

"Again, Sasuke."

And Sasuke was away, thrusting like a pistol on a train. Naruto's heat kept swallowing him with every thrust, Naruto's shouts of joy in his ears pushing him over the edge. A roar of a moan left Sasuke when he felt Naruto come on his stomach and his muscles convulsed on Sasuke's member. With a final thrust, Sasuke's vision was shrouded by white ecstasy as he came inside the blond.

Sasuke pulled himself from inside Naruto then collapsed on top of him, sucking on his neck once more leaving a hickey that couldn't be mistaken for anything else. He then moved up so that he was nose to nose with the panting blond.

"You're mine, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Yours," Naruto said fondly as Sasuke slid off the top of him to lie at his side. Naruto wrapped his arms around the raven and rested his head on his chest.

Two people who had always felt so lonely, one unwanted and the other an avenger doomed to loneliness, formed a bond that night that they never thought would be possible. Would that bond last? They were willing to take the chance that it would, even against all instincts that they might be hurt. They slipped off into a peaceful sleep, feeling secure in each others arms.

Not everyone had such a peaceful sleep, though. Just ask the elderly couple in the room sharing a wall with the shinobi duo that was still lying wide-eyed awake. At least the banging and squeaking of the bed had stopped.

O0o.end chapter.o0O

A/N: Sorry…short chapter. I went on vacation, then I got sick, and now I'm packing for college. Didn't get around to this chapter much, but figured ya'll'd want what I had.

TRG


	17. EroSennin

Chapter 17: Ero-Sennin

**Chapter 17: Ero-Sennin**

Several more weeks passed quickly as Naruto and Sasuke traveled town-to-town looking for Jiraiya. They stayed in hotels every chance they got, often keeping unlucky elderly couples up well into the night. Sasuke and Naruto never would forget the morning after their first time:

(_flashback)_

_Sasuke and Naruto woke late and sticky. Naruto stretched his tan nude body out, and suddenly Sasuke was hoping for a repeat. Naruto jokingly whined, "Sasuke, you forgot to use protection! You could have knocked me up!"_

"_Dobe," Sasuke smirked, but then he noticed something. It was something that made him angry and jealous at the same time._

_He put a hand up to Naruto's neck, lightly tracing it. "Naruto," he said, "Where are your hickeys?" He worked hard on those hickeys, dammit! What right did they have to just disappear? Especially when his were still there! _

"_Ah…Kyuubi…stupid furball," mumbled Naruto._

_Sasuke was still a little put out, but he allowed Naruto to drag him into the shower to get rid of the stickiness. One look in the mirror told him that he looked like the just fucked uke, while Naruto had the look of seme, dammit. It looked like Sasuke would be wearing a long necked shirt for a few days._

_However, as they left the room, neither of the shinobi could miss the looks of fear and embarrassment that were on the faces of the elderly couple that just happened to be leaving their room at the same time and quickly rushed away much faster than anyone would think old people could rush. Naruto and Sasuke just shared a quizzical look._

(end flashback)

Naruto and Sasuke were checking into another such hotel to drop their stuff before an early dinner. After dinner, they would be free to search for the Toad Sannin. Naruto passed by the mirror in the room only to double back and stare.

"Oi, when did I get fat?" he exclaimed, lifting his shirt up to see a visible lump along his mid section.

Sasuke looked over at him. "You're not fat," Sasuke explained coming over in a kind of reverent awe and placing his hands on the slight bulge. These were _his _children, the ones that he had been wanting to revive the clan. It seemed unreal. His ambition was so close to fulfillment AND he had Naruto. '_Impossible things do happen.' _Sasuke finished explaining, "You're just pregnant. And with four children, you'll be getting big fast. Soon, we're going to have to disguise you as a woman."

Naruto pouted. "Well, I'm the manliest pregnant dude you've ever met right?"

Sasuke nodded.

"I guess that will have to do for now, but I don't want to dress up as a woman! Can't I just be like…a fat man or something?"

"It will be a little obvious that you're pregnant," Sasuke stated.

"Hmpf," Naruto was pouting again, "How do you know? Have you ever knocked up a guy before? Have you ever seen a pregnant dude?" Sasuke had no answer.

"Teme, let's just go get some ramen!"

"But it will make you fat," smirked the Uchiha.

"I'm not fat! I'm pregnant, teme!"

And Naruto dragged Sasuke out of the room with that yell. It was all just another friendly argument the dobe and the teme enjoyed so much.

O0o.o0O

Sasuke had never seen such a needy look in Naruto's eyes before. The blue orbs shone with love and hunger. He was devouring what was before him with his eyes. He took it into his mouth and sucked. The noodles slid effortlessly down his throat. Broth flicked up onto that tan skin. Sasuke was jealous.

Naruto never looked like that for him!

Sasuke had to cut his thoughts off right there. He was jealous of a bowl of ramen for Kami's sake! That couldn't be healthy for his mental state.

But there Naruto was again, devouring his ramen. That look, that need, that passion- it all made Sasuke want him and want him now!

He threw down some money on the counter to pay for the meal and picked Naruto up bridal-style despite the boy's protests as his ramen bowl got further away.

"Sasukeeee…my ramen!!"

"I've got something tastier for you to eat," Sasuke promised.

"Really? What?"asked Naruto. Was it a special new flavor of ramen? Maybe some really good pocky? Some world-famous dango? Or even better, a special new flavor of ramen? Naruto liked his ramen.

"Me."

O0o.o0O

Jiraiya was enjoying his company. He was right to enjoy it- who wouldn't enjoy such lovely ladies giggling and serving him sake. Jiriaya especially liked it when one of the ladies began massaging his thigh- she was surely a cute one.

"Sasukeee…my ramen!" Jiraiya heard the loud whining from outside on the street. That sounded a lot like his stupid blond apprentice.

Looking out the open window, he saw Naruto being carried by Sasuke like a girl. '_That was interesting,' _thought Jiraiya as he took a sip of sake, _'The Uchiha doesn't seem like one to be touchy-feely like that….unless…he was going to get some."_

Sake sprayed from the Toad Sannin's mouth, covering the lovely ladies.

"Sorry, ladies," apologized Jiraiya, a lecherous gleam in his eyes, "I'm going to have to cut our session short. I've just remembered some…_research_ I have to do."

Jiraiya caught up to the two: the Uchiha and the blond brat. He had to swallow the perverted chuckle that tried to escape. _'Oh, yeah. The Uchiha is going to get some tonight…this afternoon,' _he corrected.

Through the streets he followed them, then to a hotel. Jiraiya picked a seat in a tall tree and pulled out his telescope to prepare for the show. He peeped in window after window until he found the one he was looking for. It looked like he hadn't missed a thing.

It started in passionate kisses- mouth tried to swallow mouth. Their hot bodies pressed against each other. Clothes started flying off. Even Jiraiya couldn't tell who was pulling what off. It was almost as if the clothes were throwing themselves off the two boys of their own accord.

Now, Sasuke's alabaster and slender figure was pushed against Naruto's shorter, tanner, and more muscular form.

'_This is hot,' _thought Jiraiya as the two collapsed onto the bed, Naruto straddling Sasuke and sucking on his neck. '_Icha Icha Yaoi: Book Two, here I come!'_

His pencil started flying across his notebook, taking notes of what he was seeing.

Naruto had licked his way down to Sasuke's erection, his butt in the air towards Sasuke. Sasuke took the opportunity to start preparing Naruto. A 'pop' of the top of a bottle, and a lube-slicked finger entered the blond, causing Naruto to slightly squirm at the discomfort. Sasuke readjusted the blond, putting a bronze leg on each side of his head. He took Naruto's member into one hand, the other hand still stretching the kitsune boy's entrance, adding another finger.

'_Nice. The classic 69…must remember that…and such multi-tasking! Probably only a ninja could do that right.'_ Another lecherous giggle left the Toad Sannin's lips, taking more notes.

In no time, Sasuke had all three fingers stretching the blond. He pulled his fingers out, released Naruto's member, and made Naruto release him. Sasuke flipped them over, using a bit of controlled chakra to maneuver Naruto right-way-up. Now, Sasuke was the one straddling Naruto's waist, and leaving a fair amount of hickeys and his licked and sucked Naruto's chest, toying with a nipple from time to time. Sasuke left a great amount of suck-bruised skin, some with bite marks. There was no point to hold back - Kyuubi healed them every time by morning.

Satisfied with his work, Sasuke positioned his member on Naruto's entrance but didn't push in.

Naruto groaned. He always did this, this teasing. Sasuke would never fuck Naruto until he begged for it.

Naruto tried to push himself against the member, but Sasuke pulled himself away.

"Come on, Naruto. You know what you have to do," Sasuke said sensually in Naruto's ear. He wanted Naruto to beg, to ask for it. Naruto was not a dog, damn it! He was Konoha's number one most surprising ninja!

Naruto gave a roar and rolled them over again, making sure he stayed on top this time. He impounded himself on Sasuke's erection, pushing himself down the still slick with spit member. He fully seated himself and paused, giving himself time to adjust.

Sasuke smirked. Naruto wanted him. Always wanted him. And that was wonderfully erotic. What an ero-dobe!

Naruto pulled himself up the member then sunk down again. He did it a few more experimental times before he finally found the right angle. He gave a yell as Sasuke's member hit that wonderful bundle of nerves.

And then all hell broke out. Naruto was like a savage beast, pulling up and sinking again and again, always at the right angle. Sasuke watched the display, feeling its pleasures: it was primal, it was intense. They flipped once again as Sasuke took control and finished the job. Naruto came on their stomachs and Sasuke came deep within the blond. They collapsed once again in the afterglow of sex, lungs heaving, faces flushed, and eyes hazed with pleasure.

Sasuke pulled himself up and grabbed a towel from the bathroom, cleaning them up. Sex is messy, and Sasuke didn't like waking up sticky.

He fell down beside the blond and pulled him to his chest. The sun hadn't even set yet, but they drifted off to sleep. Luckily, they didn't keep any old people up that time.

Up in his tree, Jiraiya finished up the rest of his notes. '_Icha Icha Yaio: Book 2 will be hotter and smexier than the first. Now, what should I call the main characters? Naruto and Sasuke would be too obvious,' _he thought for a full ten minutes, "I got it! Nar_uke_ and Sa_seme! _Hm…Saseme…sounds like a seed. I'll have to work on that later."

O0o.end of chapter.o0O


	18. Perverts and Seals

A/N: If some things in this fic contradict each other tell me

A/N: If some things in this fic contradict each other, tell me. It's just been a long while since I've sat down to work on it. I've now pledged in my own blood that I'll finish this fic by the end of summer. 30 chapters max (probably closer to 25) – I don't like long drawn out stories. Hopefully, the chapters will start getting longer too. But anyway, you can celebrate. I'm back to writing this after abandoning it for almost a year. I'll put my other two Naruto stories on hold for now (though you can definitely check them out. One's yaoi, the other's not). It should start getting better. I'll admit this chapter's not up to my usual level. Once again, it's just been a while.

By the way, this chapter is dedicated to HisNameIsMyNM2. I used one of the names he suggested for the children for an OC. I doubt he remembers by now, it's been a while, but I said I would do this so there.

**Chapter 18: Perverts and Seals**

Naruto woke up feeling worse for wear. He was still tired. He ached. His ass was sore. Well…that could be explained. Sasuke was still lying next to him in bed in all of his alabaster, muscled nakedness. But the worse thing for Naruto was his urgent need to pee. He pulled himself out of bed and groggily dragged his body across the hotel room and into the bathroom.

The sound of water tinkling into a larger body could be heard for a long period of time. Then a flush of toilet and then a long shout that roused Sasuke from his slumber faster than a bucket of cold water.

"Naruto!" he said urgently, recognizing the shout. He dashed from the bed and into bathroom to find his lover standing in front of the mirror, a bewildered expression on his face.

"What the hell are these?" he bellowed, fingering the bruised skin on his neck and the bite marks on his chest. Of course he would freak. The fox had always healed every little thing wrong with the boy before he could even look in the mirror to see it, from acne to hickeys. "That damn hairball!"

Naruto marched back into the room and took a meditative position on the ground. He was going to get to the bottom of all this! Naruto, however, missed the satisfied look Sasuke gave him when he eyed the dark bruising. Now, there was proof on Naruto's very body that he was taken.

Naruto plunged himself into his own mindscape, angry as hell. He'd like to see Kyuubi's blood lust compare to his today.

"Damn Fox! Bastard!" he shouted into the darkness, sloshing down the sewer through the ankle-high water. "What do you think you're doing!? Playing around!?"

When he got in front of the bars though, he began to get worried. Kyuubi's chakra was low. How could that be possible?

"Fox?" he called out uncertainly.

"**Pathetic human. Why do you bother me? You have the entire world to tread. Why do you intrude on my little jail cell?"**

Naruto's anger came back. If he had the energy to be a smart-mouth, he must've been fine. "Hey, Kyuubi? What's going on? Why have you stopped healing me? You have to pay rent, you know."

The reply was a deep rumble. **"I owe you nothing, mortal. And I will not be healing you anymore."**

"Eh? Why not!?" Naruto demanded.

"**I do not have the energy. The kits are growing and I must maintain a womb of chakra at all times, and supply them with their needs. I cannot do this as well as heal you…unless I let some of them die…" **Of course, what the demon didn't mention was the fact that he was also beginning to siphon off his chakra into the YY child, the being that shouldn't exist. He had to mold that child and fill in the missing DNA with his own so that the body could grow. But even as he did this and the child was growing, it was lifeless. Its small heart was beating, but it did not have a soul. However, with each bit of chakra the fox pumped into the little body, the weaker the seal became in this body. It would slowly fade and it would reform on the kit. With no soul to compete against…well…Kyuubi would be reborn in human form. No, not human. With him supplying the last links in DNA, his new body would be a hanyou. It would be an insult to any demon, but Kyuubi wanted any freedom he could gain.

Naruto's eyes grew big. Let them die? Sasuke's children? No way! Naruto would lose too much!

"Fine then, fox. Be that way. But when the time comes…I expect you to finally pay up."

"**Insolent brat! No one threatens me!"** With a quick wave of chakra, Naruto was forced out of his mindscape.

"Damn fox…" he mumbled. He looked up at Sasuke. "Well, it looks like no more healing factor for me." He tried to be cheery about it, but the thought scared him to death. Naruto was just too accident prone to not be able heal quickly. He'd be dead within in a week. Or so he was sure. Sasuke didn't know what to say to that. He instead ran his fingers through the blond locks, trying to give comfort the only way he knew how.

"Man, you've gotten chunky Naruto. Maybe you should pick up your work out routine…or maybe just have more sex. That burns a lot of calories."

Naruto squeaked, throwing himself onto the bed and pulling the covers over his nude form, trying to cover himself from the new voice. But the new voice wasn't really new. He recognized it.

"Ero-Sennin!" He yelled. "What the hell are you doing in our room!" Sasuke looked over to the newcomer. He was squatting in the corner of their room, crazy white hair everywhere, a huge scroll on his back, and a notepad in his hand that he was writing on. Sasuke vaguely wondered how long the man had been there observing them walking around naked. Sasuke pulled on some boxers and then grabbed his pants off the floor.

"Hee…hee," the man said with a perverted grin, "I could ask you two the same thing but I think I can already guess." He decided against telling them about his research the night before. He had adoring fans waiting for his next book, after all, and he wouldn't want to displease them by dying by his own student's hands before it was finished.

"YOU…YOU…" sputtered Naruto, still hiding himself under the covers, "YOU PERVERT! GET OUT!"

Jiraiya giggled some more, eyeing the Uchiha. "I'm not the only pervert here."

"OUT!" Naruto shouted, throwing a vase that was on the nightstand for decoration at the man.

The white-haired man held his hands out disarmingly after taking the vase to his face. "Now, now, no need for violence. I'm going…"

He jumped out of the window that the two just noticed was opened.

"Awww," Naruto whined, "Ero-Sennin was perving on us!"

"How do you know?" Sasuke asked. He had never met the guy and didn't know of his reputation.

"Because he's ero-sennin!" Naruto yelled, pulling at his yellow hair. "Come this time three months from now and he'll release a new book with us as the main characters!"

_A book? Well, that didn't sound too bad?_ "I don't understand," Sasuke said quietly, hoping that Naruto would take the hint and realize how loud he was being.

"You don't understand?" he asked exasperatedly. Then he thought about it. "Of course, you don't! You don't know that Jiraiya is the author of all the Icha Icha Paradise books!"

Sasuke could feel himself pale. "He wouldn't."

"He does," Naruto said seriously.

"Get dressed, dobe. We need to find this sensei of yours." They were going to have a little talk with the perverted man, and if this little talk included cursing, punching, kicking, and the loss of blood of the Sannin, that would be just fine with Sasuke.

They found him outside the women's bath house, just like Naruto had said earlier when they began their search. He was crouched behind some bushes, peering through a knot hole in the fence. The giggles of women could be heard from the other side and the pervish giggles of an old man could be heard on the closer side.

"Ero-sennin, I can't believe you peeked on us," the blond scolded. "Doesn't that break some personal or professional moral?"

"Shh!" he hushed them, "Go away! There are some particularly beautiful women here today." He didn't even spare them a glance.

"Ero-sennin! I swear, if there is one mention of a Narumaru, or a Sasashi, or a Naruka, or even so much as a blue-eyed blond guy, or a black-eyed raven guy, I swear on all of the good flavors of ramen in this world, I will tie you up and let Tsunade castrate you, long and painfully."

Jiraiya cringed and shifted in order to give his lower regions more protection. What was he going to do about that? Suddenly an idea came to him: agree now, publish later, and forever stay the hell away from Naruto, Tsunade, and Konoha. He should probably stay clear of the Uchiha too. He had a dangerous glint in his cold eyes. If Jiraiya hadn't seen his performance the night before, he might've thought the guy was always such a human popsicle.

"Okay, okay, brat. Stop being so loud. I don't want them to hear us."

Sasuke could feel a vein pounding in his forehead. He couldn't believe that one of the legendary Sannin, the man that had killed Orochimaru, was just some old perverted guy that seemed to give jack-shit about everything that had clothes on. Sasuke could swear his blood pressure was rising just being next to this guy. And Naruto spent three years with him? Unbelievable.

"Oi…what are you still doing here?" Jiraiya asked when they just stood around waiting on him.

"We were sent to find you!" Naruto said, unhappily, "Because you can't seem to answer a direct summon from the Hokage!"

"Hm…must've missed it," said Jiraiya airily, sweating only a little. Truly, he had ignored it on purpose. He had just come to this town! The women were beautiful and so friendly in all the right ways. He had no desire to leave. "Well, what's her problem? Does she want me to whip you back into shape? Kami, I've never seen you gain weight before, but you're starting to get chubby, brat." Naruto turned red in anger.

Sasuke butted in, "Perhaps we can take this somewhere more private."

"Why?" asked the toad sage, already turning back to his peeping.

"Because, Ero-sennin, Sasuke knocked me up and we need your help!"

Jiraiya had just found the first thing that could peel his interest away from looking at hot, naked, bathing girls. He almost pulled a muscle spinning around so fast.

"WHAT!?"

O0o.o0O

Jiraiya was studying the seal Sasuke had copied from the ground in Suna. They had told him everything Tsunade had told them.

"Okay, I get the purpose of this seal, I understand what it did to you, I know about the YY DNA pattern, but I don't get why the Kyuubi did this. He has to be trying to gain something and I hardly doubt he just wanted to reproduce." He sat in thought a little longer. "Hmm…can I look at your seal Naruto?" Naruto pulled off his shirt and focused chakra to his belly. He was proud of the ability. He had slowly been getting his control back together. The morning sickness was easing up too. He seemed to be passing those symptoms in his pregnancy, and he was glad. He just felt so helpless without his chakra, though Tsunade had warned him about using jutsu while pregnant.

The white-haired man hummed and prodded at the seal, and then he sat back down and scratched his chin in thought. "Well, brat, the only thing I can say is that we're in some deep shit."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. Sasuke was standing behind him in either support or possessiveness -- Naruto couldn't figure out which.

"Well, just take a look at your seal. What can you tell me about it?"

Naruto looked down at the seal he had memorized very long again, every spiral, every symbol…but something was off. "It looks…faded," Naruto commented. Sasuke leaned forward to see it. He briefly wondered why he had noticed that in all of their nude adventures together. Then again, he had been a little preoccupied.

Jiraiya nodded. "The fox is transferring his chakra to the soul-less child. That's the only possible explanation I can come up with. As his chakra transfers, so does the seal. However, with no soul to stop him, he will take over that body and have a body of his own back. If that happens…"

"Damn, we're in deep-shit," Naruto agreed with the man's earlier statement.

"What are our options?" Sasuke asked.

"How the hell should I know?" Jiraiya crudely responded. "I'm not a doctor and I don't know anything about pregnancy other than to not let it happen. I'd say abort, but I can see you obviously don't want to do that, and I'm sure the Kyuubi would have devised a defense to that already anyway. The only thing I can think of is an old man named Morio. I think he lives north of here still, right on the boundary Earth Country and Waterfall Country. It's a good distance to travel. He lives right on the shore. The Yondaime went to him for more seal training than I could give him. If there's anyone alive that could help, it would be him."

"Morio, huh? I guess we don't have any options. We're going to have to go see him," Naruto said with a nod. "Are you going to come with us, Ero-Sennin?"

A blush rose on the toad hermit's face, "Welll…actually…no. You see, Morio had a beautiful daughter, she was taking a bath. One thing led to another and let's just say I'm not welcome there anymore." Jiraiya saw Naruto shake his head and roll his eyes. "Besides, with this new…situation, I need to check up on the Akatsuki and see if their aware of it and what they have planned."

"You better do that, Ero-Sennin! Like I said, if there is a book out in a few months that sounds anything remotely like us," he pointed to Sasuke and himself, "Then you can kiss your gonads goodbye." He went off to the bathroom to take a leak, something he had to keep doing more and more often these days. It would probably only get worse as the children grew and pushed on his bladder even more.

Jiraiya was left alone with Sasuke in an uncomfortable silence. "You know, I figured he was gay, but honestly, for you? I don't see what he sees in a cold person like you." And then he was gone. Sasuke got the distinct impression that the toad sannin didn't like him for some reason. Maybe it was because he was the snake's student. Or maybe it was because of that time he shove a hand through Naruto's chest. _Come to think of it, how __**did**__ I ever get Naruto after that? _ He put it to the back of his mind, somewhere near the chicken-ass part of his hairstyle.

O0o.end chapter.o0O

A/N: alright! I'm back and kicking ass and taking numbers!


	19. Frustration

**A/N: **I like Gai's team…

**Chapter 19: Frustration**

"I think we took a wrong turn," Naruto suggested as they walked slowly down the road. It had been a month since they had left Jiraiya and Sasuke predicted it would still take another month of traveling to reach this Morio man. He yearned to start running and make it there in a week, but Naruto could not do that. Already four months into his pregnancy, the blond was getting bigger everyday. With four babies came four-times-the-size. Sasuke mentally moaned. Soon he would have to force Naruto to dress up like a girl and he could already feel a headache coming on just thinking about the blond's stubbornness. It's not like Sasuke honestly wanted to do it. He liked Naruto the way he was, penis and all. However, for the sake of safety (because they couldn't let any rumors start), Naruto had to hide himself. Sasuke really did understand that it was hard for Naruto. Naruto – the ninja that would hide from no one. Naruto – the ninja who would take no one's crap. Naruto – a man that would not lose his masculine self-respect even during pregnancy. However, none of this explained Naruto's last statement. Sasuke raised a perfect black eyebrow in a questioning look.

Naruto let out a long bored breath. "I think we must've taken a wrong turn somewhere because this is so boooooooring. I've never been on such a boring road."

"Tch, dobe," Sasuke smirked, "You're just used to being lost. Not being lost is a change for you."

Naruto grunted and mumbled something about bastards and their superiority complexes and then something about how much more fun being lost was compared to being on the right path.

"But really! We've been traveling FOR-EV-ER! How long is it going to take?"

"How should I know, dobe? It's not like I've ever been there." Sasuke studied a map he had brought. "There's a village coming up. I think we should stop and get your disguise."

"What disguise?" Naruto asked crossly.

"You are beginning to show too much. If we disguise you now, there is less chance that anyone will recognize it for what it is."

"_It_ is your children and you had better stop talking about it like it's a disease!" Naruto's fuse seemed to be shorter these days than it had been previously, which is saying something because it had never really been very long to begin with.

The raven figured it was linked to the pregnancy and felt that the safest route was to diffuse the anger. He nodded and said, "Come." It didn't quite take all the anger out, but his calmness made the blond realize that he may be overacting a bit. He followed his raven-haired lover down another branching path to the nearby town.

O0o.o0O

Sasuke dropped the blond off at a food vendor (no ramen for the pregnant man) and went to go get what he needed to disguise the blond. He stopped at several shops, mixing other items in with his purchases so that no one would get too suspicious. He settled for getting some make-up to hide the tell-tale whisker marks the blond always sported. He also picked up a bottle of brown hair dye because Naruto's hair was too long to hide under a wig and Sasuke secretly liked it long and wouldn't want Naruto to have to cut it. However, a different color and hairstyle would probably be in order. He stopped by a clothing store and got a woman to help him pick out some acceptable clothing for his "wife." He brought it all back to the hotel and told the blond to get into the disguise.

Naruto simply ignored him with his characteristic stubborn will. By the next day they were away from civilization again and he and the blond were back into one of their all-too-common arguments.

"IF YOU THINK THE DISGUISE IS SOOOO GREAT, TEME,WHY DON'T YOU WEAR IT YOURSELF!" The blond yelled loudly, spit spraying over the raven. He had on a simple blue dress, nothing extravagant, just something a farmer's wife might wear. Sasuke had badly sewed in two bean sacks for boobs -- one was bigger than the other, which didn't really matter as they were crooked and misshapen to begin with. Naruto had not dyed his hair yet, though it was out of the low pony tail that normally held it out of his face. Naruto hadn't even spared the make-up a glance.

"Because it would ruin the whole reason for disguising you," Sasuke tried to reason, "A girl traveling with a pregnant man is kind of odd, don't you think, dobe?"

Naruto crossed his arms behind his head, his face pulled into a scowl that didn't look right on his soft face. "NA-RU-TO!" he pronounced clearly.

"What?" Sasuke asked evenly.

"Naruto! That is my name! Not idiot, not stupid, not dumb, not dunce, not clueless, and especially not DOBE!" he fired off, a rare heated flame in his eyes.

"Whatever," Sasuke said, giving a pause before adding, "Dobe."

Instantly he knew he had pushed too far. Naruto had obviously been on end already, being fed up with the pace they were keeping, not being able to train to get stronger, not being able to do any of the things that he normally did that just made him who he was, and especially now having to dress up as a girl. He was always having to take precautions, take the safe route, do things Sasuke's way and it was really starting to grate of his nerves. He had made it just fine on his own so far. Why should he need anyone now, granted that person had saved his life several times. Of course, that same person had also tried to kill him several times too. Naruto was so confused.

"TEME! What right do you have to always call me that? It's always dobe this and dobe that! Any time I call you teme there's always someone there to make a big deal out of it and tell me off or hit me in the head. What makes it right for you to throw around names and wrong for me? You're not any better than me, Uchiha!"

Naruto's anger fueled Sasuke's always barely contained anger that was only worse now since losing his only stress reliever/punching bag that the dobe had been before this whole pregnancy thing.

"Says the deadlast of the class. Of course I'm better than you," the raven retorted coolly.

"Says the one with the fucked-up ambition," Naruto yelled back, losing his cool.

"Says the one with the impossible dream," hissed Sasuke

Their eyes locked in a fiery exchange of glares that threatened to kill whichever quite glaring first. As such, neither would break the exchange.

A nervous cough with a loud voice saved the day, "Such impassionate words threaten to extinguish the flames of youthfulness in this relationship!"

Maito Gai – Tenten, Lee, and Neji behind him – had stumbled upon this scene in the otherwise tranquil forest after successfully completing an A-ranked mission. It was rare that they were together as a team again, but they were familiar with the area after having completing an earlier mission there during their genin years and therefore were grouped together again for this mission.

The green beast of Konoha could feel the heated glare from where he stood on a tree branch. He gulped nervously. The killing intent was reaching dangerous levels. However, Gai was not one to be kept away by something such as the people in question not wanting him to interfere. Gai told himself that their fires of youthfulness needed to be rekindled and that he was the only man for the job. He was not dissuaded either when the glares were turned to him, however it did make him pause.

"Uchiha Sasuke!" he greeted loudly, recognizing the raven. "What has your fires on a rampage on this glorious day?" Tenten hid her face in her hand. Her old sensei could be so embarrassing. Gai received no reply as the two turned their backs to each other, refusing to look at or talk to each other.

Gai tried the other person before him. "You madam! What could bring about such an impassionate display?"

_He thinks I'm a woman in this horrible costume!? _Naruto sent him a disgruntled look.

"Aha!" Gai proclaimed, taking one look at the woman, "I can see what has caused this fiery meltdown. The lady's lumps of passion have developed an apathetic disease!"

Everyone in the clearing sans Lee shared an identical thought of, "What the fuck?" while Lee swiftly backed up his mentor yelling, "Gai-sensei! Always so kind and so smart! He can solve any problem! If he can't, then I would gladly do 1000 laps around Konoha, and if I couldn't do that I would…"

Tenten knocked them both out when they started hugging and crying. "I think he meant that your boobs are messed up," Tenten smiled politely. Both she and Neji had instantly recognized Naruto in the costume. "Undercover?" she asked.

Naruto hesitantly nodded. It wasn't really the truth. But, then again, he didn't want her to know the real reason.

"Then, I'll help you with your disguise," she led the blond away, who was still refusing to look or even talk to the raven.

Sasuke and Neji were left alone, which was fine with Neji because he had questions to ask the Uchiha anyway, especially after having seen the blond with his byakkugan.

"Naruto is…" he started. He was going to finish with _pregnant._

The ill-tempered Uchiha turned his back on him and cut him off, "You annoy me." Sasuke went and sat on a fallen tree.

The Hyuuga had to resist the urge to laugh. Who knew teasing could be so fun, especially when you didn't even act like you were teasing. "Who is the father?"

"Naruto." Sasuke answered.

"Who is the other father?" Neji pressed.

Sasuke grunted, which Neji took to mean the Uchiha was. This was a hilarious situation. First, Sasuke likes Naruto but won't pursue him because he wants to rebuild his clan, and now the blond ends up pregnant with Uchiha children.

"Fate favors you," Neji said.

"Then how come it feels like it's laughing at me?" the Uchiha snarled. He didn't like Neji very much. The damn Hyuuga knew more than he should. He could feel Neji subtly making fun of him in everything that he said. Of course, it also didn't help that Sasuke felt that Neji liked Naruto too. Not that he was jealous or anything, because that emotion was below a Uchiha.

"If you don't want him around, I guess I can travel with him, hide him, and protect him," the Hyuuga offered. Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Then I guess not," Neji said. "Just remember that there are others out there that would do your job and would do it better."

"Like you?" Sasuke hissed.

"Hmm," was all Neji was allowed to say before Tenten returned with the new-boobed Naruto. He was more convincing now as a woman, though he still held himself like a guy and was still recognizably Naruto. Tenten took charge again, and by the time Lee and Gai had finally woken up, Naruto was unrecognizable to all but the closest to him.

"Damn, I feel all…girly," Naruto complained. Tenten giggled. "No, seriously. I swear I can feel my dick shrinking." That caused Tenten to blush and excuse herself uncomfortably.

"Dobe," Sasuke sighed.

"What?" asked Naruto, forgetting that he was angry at the bastard.

"You're an idiot," was all he said. Naruto frowned.

Neji shook his head. "He means that you can't be that forward around girls. It's not proper."

Naruto blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Oops."

O0o.o0O

By the time Team Gai left and Naruto and Sasuke were walking down the dirt road toward some guy that could help them, Naruto was sore, his feet ached, and to top it all off, he had remembered that he was angry at Sasuke.

"You know you're a jerk, right?"

Sasuke sighed. He should have expected such moodiness. The books had warned him. They had also informed him not to make it worse. Of course, why should he take orders from a book. "You know you're an idiot, right?" he mirrored back in his low even voice.

Naruto seemed to choose that instant to be plagued by another bought of klutziness. He tripped over the helm of his dress and went crashing to the floor. Sasuke caught him protectively, keeping him from harm.

Naruto blushed, scratching his head sheepishly once he was set standing again. "Okay. Maybe we're both right," he allowed.

"You're not angry at me anymore," Sasuke asked suspiciously, as if Naruto would suddenly come charging at him with a kunai. Hey, it had happened before.

"Nah, you can call me dobe and I can call you teme. I'm tired of fighting." He gave a big foxy yawn. "In fact, I'm tired of traveling too. Can we call it a day?"

The sun was setting anyway, so Sasuke nodded. He left Naruto to put up the tent while he fetched water and wood. Soon they had dinner cooked and quickly eaten. Naruto fell back from where he was sitting, stretching out to relieve him of the stress of the day.

Sasuke smirked at his fox, happy (only secretly though) that they weren't fighting anymore. He crawled up behind the blond and began to work the kinks out of his back. His pale fingers began to work lower, messaging all of his lower back. Naruto kept emitting little moans of satisfaction and comfort. Sasuke could feel desire welling up inside him. He quickly doused the fire outside and pulled his little spit-fire into the tent.

"Sasuke, what-?" Naruto tried to ask but he found his words swallowed by Sasuke's mouth. His eyes widened in surprise before joining in, suckling and nibbling at Sasuke's lower lip and tongue. Sasuke's lips always seemed so soft compared to his chapped ones. He loved the feel of them together. It was almost a tickling sensation.

Sasuke maneuvered the blond back onto the bed roll. It was much in the way of padding, but it was something. He pushed him down gently, pulling the blue dress up over Naruto's head. Sasuke smirked when he saw that Naruto was wearing boxers underneath. He loved the quirkiness of the blond. He was like none other. He was his. Sasuke trailed feather light kisses down Naruto's stomach, casuing goose-bumps to rise in their wake. His fingers quickly found the sensitive spot on Naruto's back making him dance underneath his ministrations. Sasuke nuzzled the into the blond's neck. He was always so warm. He sucked and licked the skin there, causing Naruto to moan in pleasure.

Soon, he rolled the blond over on his stomach and positioned him on his hands and knees, boxers long gone.

"You know, dobe, this is kind of weird to do with your new hair color." Naruto grunted as Sasuke stuck a lubed finger up his ass, stretching his entrance. It wasn't as bad anymore as their first time. His entrance was starting to stay looser allowing for less preparation. Sasuke continued talking, adding another two fingers to further stretch him, "But I can tell it is you because of your eyes. No one else's eyes are as expressive as yours." Naruto moaned as Sasuke pressed the tip of his hot, pale dick on his entrance. "And even though you may be a dead-last at everything else…" he pressed forward, sliding slickly into the hilt, his hands pressed firmly into the blond's hips for the leverage. "You were the first to ever get this." Sasuke slid out to the tip before plunging back in, basking in the all the sounds of pleasure his Naruto was making. He pulled back to surge forward again, this time aiming for that special pleasure spot. When Naruto let out a yelp, Sasuke smirked in victory. _Oh, yes. He was good_. He grabbed Naruto's dick and slid his hand along it in time to his thrusting.

"Argh…harder…" Naruto pleaded.

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hands, using them as leverage instead of his hips. Naruto arched his back up into the air. The change in position let Sasuke thrust harder and faster. Sasuke tried to memorize every feeling and sound of that moment, knowing that soon enough, it would be too dangerous to Naruto's health to participate in these activities. The thought made Sasuke pick up his pace, wanting to give Naruto all the pleasure he could before then.

Naruto came hard and long on the bed roll underneath them. That would need to be cleaned off before bed. Sasuke gave a final thrust before coming with a growl deep within Naruto.

They collapsed in a pile of heaving lungs and sweaty limbs. They cleaned up tiredly before pulling a blanket over their satisfied bodies. Naruto curled up by Sasuke's side, resting his head on his shoulder.

Right before his breathing softened into that of sleep, Naruto whispered, "I love you…Sasuke."

He fell asleep, leaving Sasuke with a full mind. He didn't know how to respond.

O0o.end chapter.o0O

**A/N: **I think we're going to be checking back in with what's happening in Konoha next chapter, along with the usual duo getting up to something or the other.


	20. Load the Mud Cannons

**A/N: **400 reviews? Aweee, you're making me blush…

**Chapter 20: Load the Mud Cannon**

Morio was an ancient man with only a few wisps of white hair left on his liver-spotted skin. He had a wife and a daughter at one time. His wife died in childbirth to his second child, which died also. His purpose in life was his daughter – taking care of her, protecting her, and teaching her. She had died too. She had been beautiful, even for her age. So beautiful that she had caught the eye of a great toad sage. They had a short relationship before she had found out that Jiraiya was not loyal to her or any woman. That had broken her heart and her soul. She fell into sickness and she never pulled out of it. Morio was left by himself for so long, but today, there were two strong chakra presences outside his house.

In his day, Morio had been a strong ninja, and very tricky. He used his mastery over sealing to give his opponents something they had never seen before. It had served him well. However, he felt that today would be the first day his skills would fail him. His bones were old, his eyes were hazed, and his mind was slow.

A soft knock reached his failing hearing.

"Come in. It is unlocked," Morio said loudly. The door was slid open and two cloaked figures blocked the setting sun. He could barely make out their features with his poor eyesight. They were wearing black cloaks with red clouds. _How strange._

"What do you need?" he asked, taking a sip of tea.

"You taught the Fourth Hokage," the shorter of the two stated rather than asked in a cold, unemotional voice. Morio strained his eyes to make out his features, but he could only make out his long black hair.

The old man nodded. "Aye, I did, but I do not teach anymore if that is why you are here."

The shorter man spoke again in that chilling voice, "We are not here for instruction, simply information. What do you know about the seal that holds the Kyuubi?"

"The Kyuubi," the man repeated, taking another sip of tea. He could feel how dangerous these men were. "I have not heard that name since the Yondaime asked me to look over his design years ago. I would never give out such important information…" he trailed off, taking another sip of tea. "However, I will tell you that whatever you are planning will not work. The seal is unbreakable by any means. The Yondaime made sure of that. That is all I will tell you. Please leave my home, now."

"You were unhelpful." Itachi Uchiha never showed emotions, however Kisame knew he was angry. The old man was engulfed in the black flames of Amaterasu. That was a sure sign that Itachi was angry.

"We leave," Itachi said. Kisame could only follow.

O0o.o0O

Another month had passed. Everyday the traveling was slower with Naruto's increasing size with the pregnancy. He was now obviously pregnant and not just fat.

They now stood at the edge of a forest. The path before them disappeared into the blackness of the forest. It was deadly looking, full of thick vines, huge trees, and briars covering the ground. Travel would be dangerous in this forest. He could only imagine the animals a forest like this would attract.

"Whoa…Forest of Death déjà vu," whispered Naruto beside him.

Sasuke had to secretly agree. He distinctly remembered not faring well in the Forest of Death. Hopefully, he would fare better here.

The sun was setting. They should probably camp outside the forest for the night. There was no reason to risk it. He was starting a fire when he felt a flare of chakra within the forest, causing him to look up sharply. He hoped that the flare was caused by Morio, but somehow, he knew it was someone else…

O0o.o0O

"Hokage-sama, you are summoned to a meeting with the council," a masked ninja said, bowing in mock respect. She knew that this was one of Danzo's Root ANBU. She also knew that he only answered to Danzo and would not take orders from her. She was a bit surprised at the request. It was rather sudden. Council meetings were usually planned several days in advance. She couldn't help but feel the weight of foreboding on her shoulders. For some reason, she knew this couldn't be good.

She walked down to the corridor that held the meeting room of the council – a round room with platform-steps that allowed the council members to all see the middle of the room. Homura and Koharu sat in the seats of honor. They were the eldest and had a great deal of influence. Once everything was taken into effect, most could tell that it was actually these two elders that ruled the council. The council had always given into their demands.

However, this had been true for years and it did not surprise Tsunade to see them here in those positions of honor. No, it was the scarred and maimed man that stood directly in-between them that scared her. Danzo had snuck in like a snake in the grass and it seemed as if his forked tongue had earned him the support and ears of the two most powerful elders. Tsunade felt her muscles tense involuntarily. Now she knew that this could not turn out in her favor.

She approached cautiously, but kept her back straight, her head high, and her shoulders back. She would never let this over-ambitious council to take away her pride, even if they found ways to take away her power as Hokage a little at a time.

"Why has the Council been called without my knowledge?" Tsunade asked, her voice strong.

Homura answered, "You're input was not needed, and neither were your 10 votes as Hokage. We have formed a majority without you."

"And what is it that you have ruled on behind my back?" she nearly snarled. As if she didn't have enough on her plate without having to worry about her own village council sneaking around behind her back.

"You are not here to ask questions," Danzo answered, contempt barely disguised. "You are here to answer our questions."

"Danzo," Koharu warned. She stood up and took a place before Danzo. "It has recently come to our attention that you have sent Uzumaki Naruto outside of this village against our advice. Surely you do not need me to warn you that Akatsuki is still after him. If they capture the nine-tails, they will have the power to be a danger to this village."

"That's only if they capture him. He is plenty strong, Koharu, and you would know this if you could ever look past his prisoner," the Hokage responded. _They dare question her judgement?_

"Do you attempt to explain your actions to this council then?" Homaru asked. The old man was tempting her to send him through a wall.

"I do not need to explain to anyone. You forget that I am the Hokage. You elected me to make decisions such as this!" she argued.

"Do not make us regret it," Koharu took up where her old team mate left off. "But this is also not why we are here. You sent another with the demon-container. Uchiha Sasuke. You endanger his life by sending him along with the Uzumaki boy."

_That's all they can find to worry about? They don't even really care if Naruto gets captured and killed. They only worry for his power being taken and there Uchiha dying._

Tsunade found herself getting angry quickly but knew that it wouldn't help the situation any. She forced herself to calm down. "The Uchiha was the one to request the training mission with Naruto. You cannot blame me for that."

Danzo broke in, "Let's just get to the point." Tsunade gave him a look that said, _Yes, let's do that quickly before I break something._ "The Uchiha has reached and passed the age that he is considered a legal adult. He has not yet picked a wife and he has yet to begin to repopulate his clan."

"What point are you trying to make, Danzo?" Tsunade asked coldly.

Koharu spoke again, "The village needs the Uchiha clan to become as strong as it once was. The longer Uchiha Sasuke puts off this duty to the village, the longer it will take to village to rebuild its strength. This is why we have summoned you today. As the leader of the shinobi of Konoha, only you have the power to order the Uchiha to rebuild his clan. We, the council, have already voted for this to be so, and using the power given to this council by the First Hokage, the majority ruling must be carried out by the Hokage."

Tsunade was shocked that this could happen. They were perfectly within their power, yet it seemed so unjust. "What do you expect me to do? Send a message to the Uchiha to tell him to leave Naruto in the nearest town, pick out a suitable girl, and bring her back to Konoha for marriage?" She gave a humorless laugh. "I suppose you want me to tell him to just go ahead and knocked her up why he's at it to save some time?" Her words were supposed to make the council see how ridiculously meddling they were being.

Too bad they didn't catch that. "Yes, that would be acceptable. I'm glad you see it our way," Homura stated. He stood up, addressing all those present, "This meeting is adjourned."

Tsunade just stood there in shock as council members passed by. She could feel herself shaking in fury. Naruto was pregnant with the Uchiha babies this council wanted so badly yet she couldn't say anything without putting Naruto's life on the line. And now she had to get the Uchiha to impregnate another woman just for the whim of this council. This was a mess. She looked up to find that she was left alone in the room with Danzo.

"I know you are behind this Danzo. The Council has never interfered in the personal life of a shinobi since the Fourth Hokage."

"The Fourth…that was a failed attempt. He died before he could begin a clan. Imagine how strong Konoha would be today if there was a whole clan able to use the techniques of the Yondaime. The council will not let an opportunity like that to pass ever again."

"And what do you gain by doing this? You never do anything that doesn't benefit you in some way." Tsunade pried, hoping that she could get information from the man.

"I gain new soldiers," he said proudly, "Any future Uchiha children have been promised to me for training. They will serve the council."

"And what does the council need its own small army for?"

"Hmm…" was all Danzo said before walking out of the door, a small smile obvious on his face.

"Damn him!" Tsunade went straight to her office and then to her desk, pulling out paper and pen in a hasty flourish and causing a great mess and commotion.

"Tsunade-sama! What are you doing?" said Shizune, freaky out at her sempai's suddenly display of energy and also the mess she was causing – she knew she was going to have to clean it up.

"The council has decided to play dirty and has gone behind my back. The cowards…" She began writing furiously on the paper she had pulled out. "They wish for the Uchiha to bring back a pregnant woman to marry. And they're going to get just that…" She scribbled some more.

"Shizune!" she ordered, signing the paper with a giant flourish of her pen. "Load the mud cannon and take cover! Konoha is about to get really dirty. I'll show them that I can play their game better than they can."

O0o.end chapter.o0O

a/n: I wonder if anyone's already guessed what is going to happen…


	21. I am an Avenger

Chapter 21

**A Demon's Soliloquy:**

_What is this bond? The more I try to focus on furthering the transfer of the seal that binds me to this pathetic human, the more I find myself distracted by the kits that are not even mine. When I rest, I listen to the soft humming of their tiny heartbeats and only then can I let myself relax. When they move in irritation in the cramped, fake womb, I find myself shifting the chakra to accommodate them and their comfort._

_What is this urge to protect? I have planned everything perfectly…everything but __**this.**__ This urge…this bond…is sickening. I have become no better than the humans I wish to tear apart with my claws. If this continues, if I continue to sink to the level of these inferior creatures, then I deserve to suffer through Hell for all eternity. These urges…I must control them…I must make them stop…or I fear I will lose what little I have gained in this wretched half-life, sealed within a human…_

**Chapter 21: I am an Avenger**

The morning broke bright and briskly, however the brightness was missed by two young men entering a forest that cut the very light out of the sky. The path was broken, torn away by roots springing from the path in its disuse. The forest felt so full of dangerous life. The very trees seemed to breathe. A blond-turned-brunette grabbed the arm of the raven-haired man, clinching it fiercely.

A raise of a delicate black eyebrow answered him.

"Sasuke? You sure we have to go through this? It's rather…eerie. I bet this forest is full of ghosts!"

"Ghosts, dobe? We're surrounded by who-knows-what type of predators and you're worried about ghosts?"

"Don't call me dobe, teme! And yes, ghosts! I don't have to worry about tigers or bears! That's what you're here to take care of. But can you beat a ghost? I don't think so…"

"Quit worrying. Nothing will happen. Let's just pick up the pace and get out of this forest quickly."

"Easy for you to say, teme," Naruto said, trying to hurry his pregnant waddling up, "You don't have a beach ball filled with rocks as a belly!"

Sasuke just mentally rolled his eyes and allowed Naruto to set the pace. The forest wasn't very large…it was just dangerous. Hopefully they could get out before the sun set. He didn't enjoy the idea of camping out here.

O0o.o0O

"Tsunade-sama, I have brought everyone here as you asked. They are waiting for you outside the door," Shizune said with a slight bow to her mentor.

"Send them in," Tsunade ordered.

What was left of the Rookie 9 as well as Team Gai, their Sensei's, and even Konohamaru and his gang filed through the door. The Hokage studied them in silence over her fingers laced together on the desk. The younger ones, Konohamaru gang, began to fidget under her gazed. She seemed to be looking at each of the ninja gathered before her and measuring up their worth.

"You have been gathered here because each of you is a precious person to Naruto." Her voice was grave and even Shikamaru managed to focus on what the woman was saying. He even stood a little straighter. Not much, but a little.

Some of the girls thought the worse. Hinata especially was thinking that the Hokage was going to announce the death of their dear friend. She barely held on to her consciousness.

The Hokage continued. "I want to know now if each and every one of you would risk your life to save his. If you do not feel this way, please feel free to leave now and forever forget about this meeting."

"If this concerns boss, it concerns me," Konohamaru said, a tad too loudly for the enclosed space of the office. Those nearby visible shuddered. "I would give my life for him!"

Gai gave a dazzling smile, "As my youthful friend has so passionately said, I think we all would give our life for our comrade."

Tsunade noticed that everyone in the room nodded in affirmation.

"Good…because Naruto is in grave danger and I need everyone in this room to help to save him, and saving him may put your lives in danger too."

O0o.o0O

"Itachi," Kisame began nervously. He had rights to be nervous. He was the only other member besides Itachi left alive of the infamous Akatsuki group, as of a month ago. It started about six months ago, maybe even earlier then that, for all Kisame knew. Itachi kept randomly disappearing. That wasn't too odd. He normally did that anyway. However, soon, he was disappearing for days at a time. He hadn't done that before. And then, mysteriously, Akatsuki members kept showing up dead. By the time Kisame had put two-and-two together, Itachi had killed the Leader as well. He had said that he felt complacent and that he needed to test his power. The memory of that night still sent shivers down his spine.

"_I needed to test my power," the bloodied Uchiha had said, approaching the shark-like man. Itachi had all the rings of the other members on his hands, except for his and Orochimaru's, because that ring had been lost._

"_Are you going to kill me too?" Kisame had asked, fully expecting to be dead within his next blink. _

_Itachi had looked at him with those emotionless red eyes, the commas spinning dangerously as he thought about it._

"_No," Itachi had said, turning away from the shark-man, "You wouldn't be worth the time."_

Kisame had the distinct impression that he had barely evaded death that day. Itachi had allowed him to follow him. Kisame was very uncomfortable around the Uchiha now, but he really didn't have anywhere else to go.

"Are you still going to attempt the unsealing of the ninetails," Kisame asked his partner.

Itachi slowly shifted his gaze to the blue man. Kisame wondered if he could even see him, since the use of the sharingan was known to lead to blindness, and Itachi used it a lot. "No. It would be foolishness to try."

Kisame let out a breath in relief. The last unsealing hadn't gone very smoothly and they both almost died. Even if it was a waste of all the effort they had gone through in the years previous, Kisame was glad that they wouldn't be risking their lives with the nine-tails.

"However, we will find the kyuubi jinchuriki. I wish to test my power against him."

Kisame mentally sighed. He had an odd feeling that he was not going to come out of this one alive.

O0o.o0O

"What I am about to tell you can never leave this room and I must ask you not to interrupt me," Tsunade began. Everyone was staring at her.

"At certain times in Konoha, there has been the need for the council or Hokage to pass laws in Konoha. I am not talking about the laws you can find written down in the Scrolls of Laws, which are made public. These certain times call upon secrecy, sometimes to protect those the laws are made against, sometime to protect the village from other villages learning about something, and sometimes they are made because the majority of the population would not support the choice that had to be made. In any case, these laws I am speaking of are called the Secret Unwritten Laws of Konoha and it is forbidden to speak of them. The punishment for doing so is death. However, I must risk it now. Naruto recently brought to my attention that the council has forgotten their duty to inform me of the unwritten laws when I came to power.

"He told me the laws and they are the reason you are here right now. Konoha currently has five unwritten laws, more than ever recorded in history. The reason Naruto knows these laws is because they concern him. Naruto is the jailor of the Kyuubi." The expected intakes of breath were heard. "When the Yondaime faced down the great demon, he was unable to kill it. Instead, he sealed it within a newborn, fresh from the womb that very day. That was Naruto. Let me make this clear: NAruto is not the Kyuubi. He is very much like Shino. He is his own individual, yet is the container of something else entirely. Because of this, Naruto's childhood was never easy. And it is also because of this that the unwritten laws came to be. Naruto has broken one of the unwritten rules unintentionally, but, nevertheless, the council will use any excuse to sentence him to death, as they have been trying to since Kyuubi's sealing."

Kakashi's book had dropped to the ground, uncaringly. "Tell us the unwritten laws, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade gave him a glare, probably because he had interrupted her even though she had specifically asked no one to do that. Her glare lightened, however, when she saw the look of concern on his face, as well as the pleading look on Sakura's face.

Tsunade nodded. "The laws are as follows: No one must ever speak of Kyuubi or of Naruto Uzumaki being a demon container; Uzumaki Naruto may not use physical violence against any non-shinobi citizen of Konoha; To protect the image of the Leaf, Uzumaki Naruto may never reveal the Kyuubi to anyone unless the dangers of the mission necessitate it, or the current Hokage orders it with the approval of the majority of the Council; To protect against possible release of Kyuubi from S-class missions, Uzumaki Naruto may never rise above the rank of Jounin; For the sole purpose of preventing any chance of offspring under the Kyuubi's influence, Uzumaki Naruto may never marry nor partake in the act of sexual intercourse."

"That's horrible!" Sakura exclaimed, "His dream…he can never accomplish it!"

Kiba looked stumped. "But I don't understand…which law did the baka break?"

"He's pregnant."

A collective gasp filled the room as every head swiveled to look at the Hyuuga.

Neji pushed away from the wall he had been leaning against. "I discovered it when our team," he gestured to team Gai, "crossed paths with them some time ago now."

"You mean Naruto was really pregnant and I wasn't dressing him up as a girl for an infiltration mission?" Tenten asked. Her glare turned fiery. "And why didn't you tell us before?"

"I wanted to keep their secret, but now it is not possible. It might also be necessary to tell you, Hokage-sama, that they are also lovers."

A thump was heard over the second round of gasps. Hinata had fainted.

"Well, that is interesting to know…and could help some of my future plans. But for now, we need to focus on a way to get rid of these unwritten laws. I want everyone to work hard to find some loophole in the laws of Konoha, some little flaw of wording, anything that can help us. With enough of us working on it together…we might just be able to change the laws in time to save Naruto's life…"

O0o.o0O

Hinata was roused after the meeting was over by her cousin.

"Neji-niisan…" she said weakly, "W-what happened?"

"You fainted," he said, picking her up off the ground and setting her on her feet.

_That's right…Neji-niisan had said that Naruto-kun and Uchiha-san were lovers…_

"Hinata-sama?" Neji queried. "Does it bother you that the Uchiha and Naruto are together?"

She burrowed her eyebrows in thought. "I-I can n-not say that it d-doesn't," she stumbled. "B-but, Naruto-kun deserves someone s-strong. S-someone he l-loves. He deserves to be happy. I-I can n-not hate h-him for that or e-even think l-less of him." She didn't need to say more. She knew her cousin knew of her deep-rooted crush for the blond.

"You are very strong to be able to do that," Neji said, an indecipherable look in his eyes. "I have trouble doing the same."

Now that she was steady, Neji had no reason to stay. He left her to her thoughts, which quickly deciphered what he meant. _Neji-niisan loves Naruto too..._

O0o.o0O

With a final kunai slash through a giant centipede that had been attacking, Sasuke and Naruto were faced with a horrible scene. The smell of smoke filled their nostrils as they took in the clearing, and the still-smoldering house.

"Stay here," Sasuke commanded as he approached the house cautiously, leaving a sputtering blond that did not like being told what or what not to do. The fires were still burning, and that was strange in itself. But even stranger yet was that the flames were black.

"Amaterasu…" Sasuke whispered to himself. Anger began to fill his veins and turn his vision red. His curse seal activated, and black markings began to spread over his body. _His brother…_There was only one other Uchiha left alive and only his brother had activated the Mangekyo sharingan – the form of sharingan that could produce these flames. But why was he here? What could be his purpose? Itachi seemed to always be hampering him, causing him pain! Why couldn't he just leave him alone? Why couldn't the murdering bastard just die from his own cold twisted black heart! He overshadowed everything! Sasuke would never be free to live his life with his brother still alive!

"Sasuke!" Naruto's shout pulled him from his angry musings and he quickly pulled the curse seal under control. However, he could not rid himself of his anger as simply. It lingered and festered. It had festered since the day Itachi had murdered the clan. It was a wound that would not heal over. It barely formed a scab that could so easily be picked off at the weakest of abrasions. And every reminder of Itachi was such an abrasion. Every reminder that Sasuke was still too weak, too scared to help his family. The wound Itachi had made on him was filled with the bitter pus of self-doubt and self-pity. He could never cure it…not ever…not until that man was dead!

"Sasuke…" Naruto's voice sounded again, filled with concern.

Sasuke's anger turned on the man he loved. "I thought I told you to stay where you were!" His voice was cold, so full of emotion that it seemed to have no emotion at all.

"I was worried about you…" Naruto whispered, unsure about why Sasuke was angry at him and not really wanting to make it any worse. "I felt your curse seal activate." Normally, he did all he could to push the other's buttons, but today…Sasuke was dangerous. Naruto recognized that fact. He was not always the most stable. Naruto had known that from a young age, yet he had still fallen in love with him. Naruto knew how much Sasuke struggled with his past, but he did not judge him. He only tried to help him in his own caring way. He thought he had finally done it. They had been getting along so well. Everything was going so perfectly… and now this…_What exactly happened anyway?_

"You should have done as I told you anyway. You should have trusted me."

"Sasuke…I'm sorry… but what exactly happened here?" Naruto asked softly, hoping to defuse the anger.

"Itachi," he hissed. "Itachi is mocking me. He sends his regards. He thinks I'm weak. That I am scared of him! He doesn't know anything! He doesn't know that I will kill him with my own two hands. He must be nearby. The fires are still burning!" So much pain was in every syllable of every word Sasuke said. His eyes held a mad glint in them. That glint scared Naruto. That glint was not part of his lover. It was so foreign. He wanted it gone!

"Sasuke, you are not sounding like yourself right now," Naruto whispered, taking a step back in fear from his lover. He was in no condition to survive a fist through his chest right now. Naruto remembered that glint being in his lover's eyes during the fight at the Valley of the End. Would it could to blows again?

Sasuke sneered. "Then maybe you do not know me as well as you think. Maybe we made a mistake. Because _this_ is me, Naruto. This is who I am. I am an Avenger, and you have no place in my life right now." Without even another look backwards, Sasuke left. He left Naruto crying outside the ruins of a smoking house. He left just like he left last time. Only this time, Naruto could not follow. This time, Naruto could only watch with tears streaming down his face as his lover disappeared into the forest, running full-speed away from him.

O0o.end chapter.o0O

What an evil cliffy…what was I thinking?


End file.
